Leah Cotterell Queensland Conservatorium Arts, Education

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The Singer's Anatomy: investigating singers' experiences of performance through reflection on underlying processes

Author Cotterell, Leah F

Published 2021-02-08

Thesis Type Thesis (Professional Doctorate)

School Queensland Conservatorium

DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/4086

Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/402268

Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au

THE SINGER’S ANATOMY:

INVESTIGATING SINGERS’ EXPERIENCES OF PERFORMANCE

THROUGH REFLECTION ON UNDERLYING PROCESSES

Leah Cotterell M.Mus.Res, B.Mus (Hons)

Queensland Conservatorium Arts, Education and Law Griffith University

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts October 2020

The Singer’s Anatomy

ABSTRACT

Considering the ubiquitous nature of singing performance, and how celebrated the singer’s role is in our culture, it is surprising that singers’ experiences seem to be so poorly represented in academic research. This doctoral study investigates the view that singing performers may share common experiences that transcend matters of style or context, and that an understanding of such common ground may offer valuable information about the performer’s experience of performance states, thereby assisting a developed sense of well- being. In this study three distinct approaches were employed to gather information on the experiences of singers as performers. This data was triangulated through the application of a novel framework that explicated seven processes of performance to enable the systematic analysis of the singers’ experiences. In addition to an autoethnographic account, a survey was used to gather the reflections of 33 singers who perform across diverse music styles, and a third method collected interviews with three experienced singing teachers (specialising in jazz, classical, and musical theatre). Together these methods generated rich, detailed descriptions of the underlying processes of singers’ lived experiences of performance. At multiple levels the results generated useful insights for both the study participants and the researcher, and point to the need for further investigation of the complexities of singers’ experiences of performance.

Keywords: Singing performance, underlying processes of performance, self-reflection, insight, well-being, performance autoethnography.

The Singer’s Anatomy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...... 2 Table of Contents ...... 3 List of Tables ...... 5 List of Figures ...... 5 Certification ...... 6 Acknowledgements ...... 7 Note on Engaging with the Doctoral Submission ...... 8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 9 Positioning my performance history ...... 9 Setting the research context: The nature of performance ...... 13 Outlining the research approach ...... 14 Research design and methods ...... 14 Research questions ...... 16 Ethical considerations ...... 17 Structure of the exegesis ...... 18

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 20 Singing performance and biology ...... 21 Performance states ...... 22 Performance and emotion ...... 29 Performance and empathy...... 34 Performance and identity ...... 38

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FRAMEWORK ...... 43 Cognitive processes ...... 45 Bodily processes ...... 46 Emotional processes...... 47 Mental processes ...... 48 Sense of self ...... 49 Social processes ...... 50 Cultural processes ...... 51 Applying the framework ...... 52

CHAPTER 4: RECITAL—CREATIVE PROCESSES AND FINDINGS ...... 53 The recital recording: ‘The Singer’s Anatomy’ ...... 53 Credits: ...... 53 Creative processes ...... 55 Findings...... 60 Summary: Recital findings ...... 68

CHAPTER 5: THE SURVEY METHOD AND RESULTS ...... 70 Participants ...... 72 Coding ...... 73 Inter-rating ...... 75

The Singer’s Anatomy

Overview of findings ...... 75 Findings with regard to the CoUP ...... 75 Key findings from data analysis ...... 77 Summary of trends by the CoUP ...... 80 Findings with regard to the three areas of self-awareness ...... 81 Combined ...... 84 Summary of numerical trends ...... 85 Evaluation ...... 87 Summary of the evaluation ...... 90

CHAPTER 6: THE INTERVIEW METHOD AND RESULTS ...... 92 Background ...... 92 The interviewees ...... 93 The interview results ...... 94 Cognitive processes ...... 94 Bodily processes ...... 95 Emotional processes...... 98 Mental processes ...... 101 Sense of self ...... 105 Social processes ...... 107 Cultural processes ...... 110 Summary of the interview results ...... 113

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ...... 115 Self-reflection ...... 115 Framework ...... 117 Complexity ...... 118 Outcomes ...... 120

APPENDIX 1: THE PERFORMER’S TOOLKIT SURVEY QUESTIONS ...... 122 APPENDIX 2: PARTICIPANT DATA ...... 125 APPENDIX 3: SINGING TEACHER BIOGRAPHIES ...... 128 REFERENCES ...... 131

The Singer’s Anatomy

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Facets of ‘flow’ described by Fritz and Avsec (2007) ...... 25 Table 2: Key concepts associated with empathy (Decety & Svetlova, 2012, p. 2) ...... 36 Table 3: Recital chapter time codes ...... 54 Table 4: Recital structure ...... 58 Table 5: Contrasts that underlie the self-writing ...... 61 Table 6: ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’ survey questions ...... 71 Table 7: Survey results by category of underlying processes (n=33) ...... 76 Table 8: Coded content grouped by area of self-awareness ...... 82 Table 9: Change in responses between Q10 and Q35 (n=33) ...... 89 Table 10: Comparing responses to Q10 and Q35 when scored by level of positivity (n=33) 89 Table 11: Questions for the singing teachers ...... 93

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Research methods ...... 16 Figure 3: First model of the performance exchange, 2016 ...... 43 Figure 4: The framework icons ...... 45 Figure 5: Recital invitation ...... 53 Figure 6: The stage with projection ...... 63 Figure 7: Three elements: The ‘Sense of self‘ icon, Leah at 13, and a Spanish landscape .... 64 Figure 8: ‘The Singer‘s Anatomy’ cue sheet ...... 65 Figure 9: Participant ages and years of performance experience...... 73 Figure 10: Comparing positivity about performance skills pre- and post-survey (n=33) ...... 88 Figure 11: Graphic table of seven processes for survey participants ...... 124

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet: I have been very fortunate to be guided by you through the research journey. Your generosity has never faltered and I am deeply appreciative of the extraordinary balance you achieve between your clear mind and compassionate motivations: your ‘sense, vision, and heart’. I always knew when I had a complex issue to manage, you’d be able to help me unpack it and send me on to the next challenge. These are gifts for the long term, and I’ll go on reflecting on what I’ve learned.

Associate Professor Irene Bartlett: You supported me at every stage of my pathway at the Conservatorium, from encouraging me to access technical knowledge of the voice, to checking my numerical tables. You always listened to my ideas and encouraged me to consider them worthy. I will treasure our many fascinating conversations on the nature of performance, its artistry, its relevance, and the pleasures of singing, particularly singing jazz.

Griffith University: Thanks for the opportunity to pursue long, deep engagements with fresh ideas, new knowledge, and brilliant academics. Thanks to the HDR cohort at the Conservatorium and the academics at the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre for broadening my horizons. I will miss the library, and I thank Ryan Weymouth for his endless patience.

To the singers who participated: It was a unique privilege to read your self-reflections in answer to the survey and the interviews. Singing performers sometimes live in a bubble of their own practice and their own style. You opened the door to understanding others’ experiences of the gift that is performance.

To my musical collaborators: Sharing thirty years of making music together has been the greatest joy and privilege of my life. Love your work!

The Singer’s Anatomy

NOTE ON ENGAGING WITH THE DOCTORAL SUBMISSION

This Doctor of Musical Arts submission explores the experience of performance from the perspective of singers. It includes two elements: a video of a performance that was the artistic research output, and this exegesis, which describes, analyses, and compares this performance and two other research methods. The assessor is asked to watch the video of the performance at the beginning of Chapter 4, after reading Chapter 3 which describes the development of the research framework.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this Doctor of Musical Arts study, singers’ experiences, beliefs, and understandings of performance have been collected in order to better understand performance from the singer’s perspective. This study was conducted in response to a perceived gap in the academic literature concerning functional aspects of performance, including the singer’s experience of heightened states. The research rationale is based on the view that singers’ experiences have not been studied much in musicological research, and that the research that does exist has largely addressed the interests of educators and training institutions, but not practitioners. The departure point for this doctoral enquiry is the notion that there may be common experiences shared by singing performers that transcend matters of style or context, and that in this common ground there may be valuable information about the nature of effective performance and performer well-being. In order to direct participants’ attention to processes that, in many cases, lie beneath the level of awareness, the research used three methods for guided self- reflection. All three methods utilised a framework of underlying processes to organise the collection, analysis and comparison of the data. This study has been designed to gather singers’ self-reports of performance experiences as a way to hear their voices, identifying both individual insights and collective concerns, and suggesting valuable directions for further study. This introduction will describe the background to the research and my own position within the topic. It will also outline the research questions, design, and methods.

POSITIONING MY PERFORMANCE HISTORY

In the following overview of my performance history, I reflect on experiences that have shaped my beliefs and understandings of performance. I find evidence that: my abilities in singing and performance may be innate; that the strength of my early relationship with singing made me very independent of dominant forms of performance training; and, that this independence has supported an optimistic, nourishing engagement with performance that has added substantially to my overall well-being.

I find persuasive evidence in my childhood experiences for the embedded nature of singing and performance capacities. Born in Brisbane in 1961, one of my earliest memories is of learning the lyrics of the Victorian music hall song ‘Molly Malone’ (Brown, 2015) at about the age of four, and singing it to myself alone under a neighbour’s house with my eyes closed

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but my mind full of images. I learnt snatches of many other 19th-century songs from my parents’ singing, as they informally transmitted to me their own parents’ everyday song repertoires. In my primary school years, I memorised my sister’s albums of songs by The Beatles, alongside my parents’ albums of popular performers ranging from Jimmy Durante and Al Jolson to Glen Campbell and Tom Jones via Billie Holiday and Judy Garland. These expressive performances of highly crafted popular songs formed the template for my understanding of singing and informed my initial connection to my own naturally low-set voice. I was strongly attracted to the common features of pop singers’ practices across generations and styles, which I interpreted as being the achievement of a pleasurable immersion in the narrative and emotional aspects of songs.

In short, endowed with a combination of inherited culture and embedded capacity, I recognised that raw, emotionally connected singing would offer me a gateway to heightened, immersive states. In my relationship to performance training, from the outset I privileged the pleasurable states I experienced through singing over the guidance and feedback offered by teachers. At primary school I was a poor fit for the kinds of singing offered by school choirs and required by the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) system. I joined choirs but could not hear the alto parts that I was assigned to, perhaps because I was so distracted by the melody. I was sent to singing lessons in the early 1970s but balked at the requirement to sing in the soprano range. To complicate matters, I was a socially odd child, growing up in a family burdened by self-stigma, having internalised the negative attitudes of society to the mental illnesses of my mother and brother. It was fortunate that my intense relationship with singing was recognised by schoolteachers, and I was often called on to sing solo in school concerts. Unfortunately, these performances caused my anxious parents to shoulder an extra weight of guilt; they felt they did not know what to do to support this obvious talent.

As a matter of good luck and timing, I was born during a period of social and cultural disruption that offered fertile ground for my idiosyncratic approach to performance. In my teens and twenties, I migrated from the outer suburbs to an inner-city scene, taking part as a listener in the Australian versions of international popular culture movements spanning the late ‘hippy’ era into punk and new wave. My first adult performances were singing unaccompanied traditional English songs with my sister in the Sydney folk music scene in 1980. Here I was privileged to observe a specialised musical tribe with collective social

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values and practices. Returning to Brisbane in 1981, my talents as a solo singer were nurtured in Brisbane’s political fringe scene. Involvement in community arts projects and feminist cabaret offered a counter-cultural performance apprenticeship. Brisbane was the home of a tightly knit artistic fringe in which young people responded creatively to being targeted by corrupt police driven by policies and practices of the Queensland Government of that time. The 32-year period of National Party government was ultimately brought to an end by an extensive corruption enquiry which led to the Premier’s resignation in 1989 and the imprisonment of senior ministers and police leadership. Potentially, this political and social environment was the catalyst for Brisbane’s early and influential contributions to punk music internationally. My performance skills developed further as I connected with increasingly more accomplished accompanists and my singing became popular with a wider local audience.

Opportunities to sing multiplied. Based on my happy affinity with audiences and some positive media reviews, in my late twenties I came to accept that I had the capacity to be a professional. I was invited to jump sideways out of the fringe into the jazz milieu, joining with some of Australia’s finest musicians in the band Bebopera. This led to opportunities to work nationally through television and radio appearances. In the 1990s, I recorded with a Melbourne studio band, Black Taxi, which also featured on television and radio. Back in Brisbane I founded country and gospel musical projects that allowed me to extend my creative work into song writing. In order to develop a higher level of musical independence, I completed a Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University in 1998. From 1997 to 2015 I was a member of an a’ Capella trio that performed many hundreds of school concerts across Australia for the Queensland Arts Council and Musica Viva Education. After the birth of my daughter in 2000, I produced new works that showcased admired singers and musicians, accessing substantial public funding and partnering with festivals and organisations. In recent years, I have facilitated a massed community choir concert for Festival 2018 (the Brisbane City Council celebration of the Commonwealth Games) and worked as Creative Producer for the Queensland Music Festival 2019, developing a celebration of John Rodger’s works, featuring the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

The Singer’s Anatomy

I have enjoyed extraordinary freedoms and rewards through singing performance. Ultimately, a strong sense of personal agency based on successful performance has also supported an optimistic, resilient approach to life more broadly, providing the means to overcome serious personal challenges. Many of these challenges have been the consequence of my early experiences. Members of my family of origin have had to deal with a great weight of suffering and stigma due to psychiatric illnesses and their consequences. In 2010 my mother and brother began to lose their capacity to live independently in the community. Their transitions to care were grim and tortuous, revealing many serious shortcomings in community and mental health and welfare systems. The artistic output of my Master of Music Research in 2015 was a musical memoir, ‘The Pleasure of Sad Songs’, which brought to account my painful yet rewarding experience of being a family mental health carer. ‘The Pleasure of Sad Songs’ has subsequently been presented at a number of mental health forums, and my family story was the subject of an interview on the ABC radio series ‘Conversations’ (ABC Radio, 2015). Through this work, the pleasures of communication through songs and singing, the ethical project of storytelling from the margins, and my own personal goal of recovery from mental health stigma all converged in one artistically and emotionally satisfying outcome.

Over 45 years of performance I have never been centrally motivated by the idea of popular success. Instead, by following my instincts, I have enjoyed singularly rich opportunities for self-realisation. I have explored my world, my society, and my culture through many contexts and relationships. Creative freedom has been the great gift of independent self-production. All these benefits have rested on my skill in communicating with audiences. Possibly because I have been so satisfied with my experiences, I have not taken success for granted, nor have I taken the lack of success personally. Now, approaching 60 years of age, I still find performance meaningful and satisfying. I perform with my long-term musical collaborators at jazz venues, music festivals, and in cabaret. In my latest performance projects, I have put together a new vocal trio concert, which contemplates the ultimate subject of death. I am also developing a practice as a music facilitator in the disability sector. In the current period of pandemic, I have continued this work through video streaming. Reflections on the meaning and purpose of singing and performance are at the heart of every part of my creative practice. In turn, they have formed the central focus of this doctoral enquiry, including the creation of my artistic research output. The goal of my Doctor of Musical Arts recital was to 12

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systematically re-examine my experience, my assumptions, and my self-narrative. ‘The Singer’s Anatomy’ was presented at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University (QCGU) in Brisbane, Australia in 2018. It was the first of the three methods that were explored in the process of developing the larger ambit of the study.

SETTING THE RESEARCH CONTEXT: THE NATURE OF PERFORMANCE

The title of the doctoral recital, ‘The Singer’s Anatomy’, pointed to the central challenge of investigating the intangible, yet functional, operations of performance. The opening speech introduced the audience to this challenge:

I assume every singer is trying to reach an elevated state, what we describe as ‘being in the moment’ or being in ‘the zone’ or ‘flow’. But that’s just a guess. I can’t do what any of my friends do. How can I know why they do it? So, for my doctoral project I wanted to ask singers to share their reflections on performance … Of course, I ran straight into a big problem. For something that feels so right, so effortless and whole, performance recruits pretty much every part of us. Bottom up and top down, we have evolved to communicate, to share our ideas and emotions. When we sing, we use much more than our voices; we use our senses, our vision, and our heart. How can I ask people about something so intangible? (Cotterell, 2018)

The scarcity of reports of singers’ experiences in the academic literature may reflect the difficulties of researching the "intangibles" of singing performance. According to Peretz, Gagnon, Héébert, & Macoir (2004), “All individuals across cultures have taken part in singing in some form” (p. 373). But although singing is ubiquitous, the musicological approach to singing performance has largely focused on either high function (flow studies, studies of opera performance) and acute dysfunction (performance anxiety). Given that singing is a phenomenon that is deeply embedded in the whole community, yet so specialised in its academic study, the goal for this study was how to systematically gather and compare the experiences of singers of diverse practice. This has been pursued on the basis of common ground that exists in the functional operations of performance, specifically in the multilayered processes underlie the phenomenon of performance, some of which are automatic, embodied, and operate beneath the level of everyday awareness. Psychological 13

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theories and studies of emotion, empathy, and heightened states have informed this perspective.

On the basis of both reading and experience, it is my view that singing performance draws on the power of the human voice to capture the attention and emotions of audience members in order to evoke feelings of closeness between all participants in the event, and that through these feelings of closeness, participants in the event gain access to shared states, as evidenced by communal silences, laughter, tears, and applause.

This functional view of the nature of singing performance resonates with similar statements by authors in the literature of voice pedagogy; that is, that effective performance requires more than just a command of vocal technique. Both Chapman (2016) and Smith (2007) characterise high functioning performance as holistic, whereby optimal performance somehow exceeds the sum of its parts. This study seeks to investigate processes that underlie that ‘whole’. From a functional perspective, whatever the style or context, all singers are called on to manage multileveled processes that impact self-awareness and self- representation, generating states of effortless concentration and empathetic connection; and they may perform such subtle acts while dealing with extreme conditions of distraction and physiological arousal. Therefore, this current study took a perspective that lies beyond somewhat limited (Western) notions of ‘excellence’, in that the research participant cohort included both professional and non-professional singers of diverse styles who were all asked to reflect on underlying processes.

OUTLINING THE RESEARCH APPROACH

Research design and methods

A qualitative mixed methods research design was employed to gather singers’ reflections on their experiences of performance. The research design was triangulated via the application of three methods: 1) the autoethnographic artistic research which produced ‘The Singer’s Anatomy recital, 2) the creation of an online survey method which gathered and compared reflections from 33 singers, and 3) three structured interviews with singing teachers at QCGU that were compared in order to identify common methods and disparate practices (see Figure 1).

The Singer’s Anatomy

All three methods were structured using a novel research framework of seven categories of underlying processes of performance. This framework was created to meet the central challenge in this study: how to gather and systematise reflections on processes that occur below the threshold of awareness. The framework was not proposed as an accurate or comprehensive stocktake of the functional processes of performance. Its purpose was to focus practioner self-reflection. A simple, consistent set of terms was developed in order to communicate the concepts to the research participants. For this reason, the final framework represents an attempt to balance the complexity of the scientific evidence with my intuitive understanding of the phenomena. The functions of these processes in singing performance are described in Chapter 3. The framework categories are presented in a range from those that were most internal to the performer, to those that were most externally influenced, being:

1. Cognitive processes, 2. Bodily processes, 3. Emotional processes, 4. Mental processes, 5. Sense of self, 6. Social processes, and 7. Cultural processes.

The foundations for this approach lay in my Master of Music Research study which analysed functional aspects of singing performance in reference to underlying mechanisms of empathy and emotion. This doctoral research took a deeper dive into literature in order to develop an overview of theoretical debates on empathy, emotion and the nature of performance states.

The framework was initially explored through the artistic research process. Through autoethnographic reflection the framework elicited unexpected insights into my formative experiences of performance. In the recital performance and its documentation this method offered a rare opportunity to audit important aspects of my practice (see Chapter 4). The second method, an online survey, was honed and simplified through a series of pilots in order to gather the self-reflections of a group of stylistically diverse singing performers (see Chapter 5). The artistic research and the survey were designed to speak to one another, so that the survey offered a larger, collective view of singers’ experiences while the performance crystallised my individual story. The case study method was created later to 15

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style a conference presentation which explained my framework to a group of singing voice teachers. I designed a questionnaire for them that was so well-received that it was subsequently piloted as a basis for a case study interview with my mentor and supervisor Dr Bartlett who teaches jazz and contemporary voice. The data gathering was then expanded to include the perspectives of two QCGU teachers who work with singers of classical/opera and musical theatre voice. These interviews proved the framework’s applicability in pedagogical contexts (see Chapter 6).

Chapter 3 Research framework The framework of seven categories of underlying processes Eliciting insights through structured self-reflection in three applications

Chapter 4 Artistic method Chapter 5 Survey method Chapter 6 Interview method Self-reflection on formative Online survey of Reflections of 3 expert singing experiences diverse singer performers teachers

‘The Singer’s Anatomy’ ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’ Identifying common Reflecting on process, Identifying trends methods and recital and documentation in survey data disparate practices

Chapter 7 Discussion Comparing three approaches to the same phenomena Validating the methods and the framework

Figure 1: Research methods Research questions

The research questions were designed in tandem with the research methods in order to focus the enquiry on the gathering and analysis of participant reflections on underlying functional processes of performance. Matters related to healthy forms of self-reflection and psychological well-being also influenced the design of the research questions (discussed below).

The Singer’s Anatomy

The central research question guiding the study was:

How can reflection on the underlying processes of performance evoke useful and healthy insights from singers?

Because the framework was a novel research tool, the sub-questions focused on the effectiveness of the research methods and the resulting research outcomes:

a. What is the most effective method for generating reflexive insights about the experience of singing performance? b. What themes emerge most strongly from the comparison and analysis of singers’ reflections?

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

This research study was granted ethical clearance in two stages, accounting for changes in the research design. The initial clearance occurred in 2016 (GU Ref No: 2016/763) and a variation was approved in 2017. The research design was developed to elicit self-reflection on the basis of positive function, with the goal of evoking insight. The research methods were designed to prompt participants in all three methods to take account of their own achievements and reflect on their own definitions of success. It was understood from the literature that insight is the most beneficial type of self-reflection, and rumination the least beneficial (Harrington & Loffredo, 2010). Therefore, the overarching concern in the study design was to support positive forms of self-reflection by highlighting the positive function of the seven categories of underlying processes. I suggest that positive self-reflection, when applied to performance, has the potential to support psychological well-being, understood as the positive experience of autonomy, mastery, and sense of purpose (Harrington & Loffredo, 2010). This is the quality of good health that is considered most relevant to this study. The subjective experience of well-being is considered as one of the central personality traits that contribute to emotional health in the literature of positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Describing effective and emotionally safe research, Tsey (2019) argued that “… people who experience and express positive emotions tend to be more resilient, resourceful and socially 17

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connected. A positive mindset affects people’s behavioural and lifestyle choices. A positive mindset also arouses measurable physiological effects” (p. 77). The focus on positive forms of self-reflection is also influenced by contemporary mental health personal recovery philosophies which, according to Newman-Taylor et al. (2017), seek to strengthen options that increase “the experience of hope, agency and opportunity for purposeful activity and social inclusion irrespective of mental health status” (p. 562). The goal of evoking positive self-reflection emerged most directly in the design of the second method, ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’ online survey as a guide for healthy self-reflection. In Chapter 4, I discuss ethical concerns related to the autoethnographic writing, and describe the creative processes and findings from this artistic research method.

In accordance with Griffith University’s ethics requirements, participant data from the survey and interviews has been stored in a password protected computer and will be securely stored for five years before being destroyed.

STRUCTURE OF THE EXEGESIS

Chapter 2 provides a literature review that sets the context for this study. It includes examples of writing about singers’ experiences of performance, studies of singing performance and literature on functional processes that underlie performance. These sources span the music- related disciplines of vocal pedagogy, musicology, and music psychology as well as more general literature on emotion, empathy, and other theories of social cognition. In Chapter 3, the study’s research framework is outlined and descriptions of the seven categories of underlying processes are provided in the context of singing performance. In the three chapters that follow this the three research methods are described with their results. In drafting this exegesis, it became clear that a more usual structure that presents one chapter for methods and another for results would result in long, multi-sectioned chapters with much inevitable repetition. The material proved to be clearer and more sequential when the methods were grouped with their results in three separate chapters.

Therefore, the artistic research methods and findings are described in Chapter 4. At the beginning of this chapter the reader is asked to view the video of the study’s major artistic research output (the recital, ‘The Singer’s Anatomy’), which provides an autoethnographic exploration of the framework. In Chapter 5 the survey method and its results are described,

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and the interview method and results are described in Chapter 6. In Chapter 7 the three sets of findings are compared and broader implications of the research are presented.

I close this introduction with an insight: Considering how common singing performance is, and how celebrated the singer’s role is in our culture, it is surprising that singers’ experiences seem to be so poorly represented in academic research. It is hoped that this study may contribute new materials to the discourse on performance in vocal pedagogy and performance studies. This research attempts to show that singers across diverse practices have extensive insights to share about how they prepare body, mind, and emotion to perform; how they manage performance states and contact emotion in performance; how they conduct important relationships; and what performance means for them and their audiences. Their collective positivity, resourcefulness, and resilience is very clear in the results of this study.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this review I identify literature that can lead to a stronger understanding of the role of underlying processes in performance. This area of research draws together a wide range of disciplines, including vocal pedagogy, musicology, music psychology, and theories of emotion and social cognition. I have focused on elements of the discourse that relate to the following key conceptual themes:

1. The biological basis of singing and music (Honing, ten Cate, Peretz, & Trehub, 2015); 2. Deep effortless attention as the central phenomenon in flow states (Marty-Dugas & Smilek, 2018); 3. Emotion viewed as constructed through context-dependent processes that lie beneath the level of our awareness (Barrett, 2017); 4. Social cognition as unconsciously motivated and enacted in context (Zaki, 2014); 5. Singing performance as a rich practice for the exploration of identity (Frith, 1996); and 6. Examples of studies from music psychology and music therapy that align to my research (Bodner & Bensimon, 2008; Brisola & Cury, 2015; Jampel, 2011; Thomson & Jaque, 2018)

Central to the research approach was a need to identify evidence relevant to those shared human capacities that underlie singing performance. The review began with a focus on underlying biological processes, encompassing both cognitive and embodied processes. Because singing performers and teachers are centrally concerned with the management of the arousal elicited by performance this review focused in particular on studies based on theory of flow in order to consider the nature of heightened performance states. Perception and expression of emotion in the voice are complex areas of research. Evolving constructionist theories that offer new perspectives on the functional operations of vocal communication were identified as particularly relevant to the performer’s task. Communication more broadly was explored in relation to literature on empathy. The field of social cognition explores communication as the product of embedded, multilayered, enactive processes that occur in the context of personal motivation and shared narrative. The layers of identity that exist in singing performance are of particular relevance to the creation of meaning for the audience. This has been researched, notably by Frith (1996). But how the representation of identity 20

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functions from a singer’s perspective has not been much researched. This leads to final section of this chapter which identifies studies most nearly aligned to this study focus.

As a context to the body of this literature review, I found strong resonances with Brisola and Cury’s (2015) study into the experience of singing in everyday settings. They positioned their study in the psychology literature by conducting a systematic literature review using the keyword ‘singing’. The 821 sources they reviewed focused on “… professional singing, acoustic qualities of singing, mothers and-or children singing, singing related to health and-or well-being, neuropsychological aspects of singing, singing in a music therapy setting, singing in groups-choirs, singing and speech, and cultural aspects of singing” (p. 396). What they did not find was literature that investigated the psychological aspects of singing, by which they meant “those that include experiences of an emotional nature, such as anxiety, desire, shame, and pleasure, as well as everything that reveals the personal, subjective experience, such as intentions, beliefs, impressions, and attitudes” (pp. 395–396). It is the singing performer’s experience, with their beliefs and understandings, that I have sought to investigate through this research.

SINGING PERFORMANCE AND BIOLOGY

Singing is a universal form of vocal expression that transcends places and cultures. (Dalla Bella, Giguere, & Peretz, 2007)

In Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll: The Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science, Cormier (2014) reviewed evidence for multiple biological processes associated with music. These include the pleasurable release of brain chemicals and hormones, the fundamental brain activity of pattern perception, and the distribution of musical processes to many brain regions, both ancient and modern. She particularly acknowledged the research of Isabelle Peretz and Susan Trehub on the biological processes that underlie human musical capacities. In her research on singing, Trehub (2003) observed the role of the caregiver’s voice in emotion regulation, indicating the importance of singing and music to human social life. Peretz (2006) identified three universal musical capacities: that singing is fundamental to all music making, that both speech and singing are mediated by language output brain systems distinct from those that process and produce music, and that affect contagion or communion underlie the social value we derive from musical capacities. Recently, Weiss and Peretz

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(2019) found that the voice enhances melodic memory regardless of music perception ability, possibly because humans have enhanced perception of signals made by members of the same species, or because the voice presents a richer source of musical information on the basis of expressiveness. Our inherent sensitivity to the communication embedded in the voice provides a practical explanation for audiences’ sensitivity to singing performance.

There is a striking distinction made by Honing et al. (2015) between musicality, described as natural and spontaneously developing, and music, defined as a social and cultural construct that draws on our underlying musicality. In a review of the literature, I identified four studies focused on the musicality embedded in singing. Dalla Bella et al. (2007) wrote that, “The few studies on sung performance have mostly targeted professional singing”. Their study examined pitch and time accuracy of sung performance in the general population, and found that the underlying skills are generally distributed and not the result of training. Hutchins, Larrouy-Maestri, and Peretz (2014) asked untrained singers to pitch match using vocal and external means. They found that vocal pitch matching was not dependent on perception, but on vocal motor control. Watts, Murphy, and Barnes-Burroughs (2003) showed that talent is an observable, and important, factor in both trained and untrained singers’ abilities, and Atkins and Duke (2013) showed that the tone quality of untrained singers was able to be quickly improved through the use of mental imagery. These studies provide evidence that singing performance is supported by innate biological capacities.

As was noted by Jimenez (2015), performance creates physiological changes in the performer that include a concentration of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline, which impact biological systems including circulation, respiration, temperature cognition, and memory, and affect behaviour and moods with effects that can manifest both positively and negatively. Layering these effects onto the biological foundations of musicality provides an explanation of how singing performance may act to flood our senses, alter our perceptions, and enhance our responses. These biological processes underlie and influence both singers’ experiences of performance states, and audience member’s responses to singing performance.

PERFORMANCE STATES

In this section I deal briefly with the literature on positive and negative experiences of performance, the role of arousal, and the construct of flow, and I consider how the theory of

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flow intersects with new understandings of cognition. Examples of optimal performance from popular music and classical pedagogy provide a useful starting point. A transcendental ideal of singing performance in popular music was captured in a Rolling Stone review of a performance by Florence Welch:

… she propped herself up on a few lucky fans, who all competed for just a touch, some sort of connection, just hoping that her magic might rub off on them … like the patron saint of music, on the hands of her followers she whipped her long red hair back and forth, elegantly convulsing … (Tijerina, 2018)

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Welch herself described heightened states from the performer’s perspective: “I do think of concert halls as an agnostic church … I think a lot of the act of performance is an act of transcendence, an out-of-body experience … on stage something else takes over that’s bigger than me” (Kot, 2018).

A similar ideal has also been described in classical pedagogy sources. Smith (2007) observed that “A free voice opens a conduit from the singer’s heart to the people in the audience … [so that singers] can help us transcend the mundane and teach us truths about ourselves that we might not otherwise have discovered” (pp. 25–26). Chapman (2016) similarly noted:

Holistic singing can be achieved when the performer is able to attain a state of unself-conscious focus. A number of complex factors can contribute to this “zone” but many performers have found it by accident. In this zone, performers and listeners have a reciprocal empathy: wonderful moments in the concert hall, village hall, opera house, church, club, or indeed anywhere. Time stands still, critical faculties are suspended, and the experience imprints on the memory of those lucky enough to be there. Singers and audience are drawn into a web of shared concentration that is greater than any of its individual parts. (p. 3)

The concept of holistic experience and the ‘zone’ are examples of descriptions of positive function in performance; however, in academic literature, there has been a greater focus on understanding negative states, especially the experience of music performance anxiety. This may reflect the reported prevalence of anxiety in classical music performance. In Working in 23

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the Australian Entertainment Industry: Final report, the authors found that around one-third of the surveyed performers had experienced anxiety. The greatest number of reports came from musicians (47%), while the greatest number of reports of anxiety came from western classical musicians (van den Eynde, Fisher, & Sonn, 2016). As Kenny (2008) explained, “… musicians are at high risk of physical and psychological strain and injury in the execution of their art” (p. 1). She argued that, while vulnerability to anxiety may relate to individual precursors such as personal histories and more general anxious traits, it may also be a consequence of specific music practices such as perfectionism (Kenny, 2011). In a study of 130 professional musicians, Nicholson, Cody, and Beck (2014) identified fear of failure as a core component of music performance anxiety, with solo performance producing the most reports of anxiety. Referring to singing, Arneson (2010) argued that the loss of bodily and mental function as a result of anxiety was particularly harmful because the “… physical systems sustaining vocal performance are precisely those likely to be disrupted by the excessive tensions that accompany performance anxiety” (p. 537).

The singing performer’s need to manage the impacts of arousal on cognition and memory was noted in a paper by Ginsborg (2019), who stated, “It was established long ago that performers must have just the right amount of arousal for optimal performance: not too much and not too little”. This established view relates to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow. In the pedagogical literature, performance states have often been explored through this lens. Classical singing teacher Sean McCarther wrote about a turning point in his performance that led to an experience of flow:

I remember watching my hand and arm shake violently and a sense of terror crept over me. In that moment, a very simple thought came to me: “No”. My hand stopped shaking, my mind focused on the moment at hand, and I experienced a fascinating connection with the world around me. It was as if I could feel the audience, my pianist, and the music as never before. Time slowed down and I felt a unification of body, mind, and voice. (2018, p. 329)

Kenny (2008, 2011) proposed that the goal for all music performers was flow, and that flow was a contrary state to music performance anxiety. Csikszentmihalyi’s nine facet model of

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A related positive psychological construct is ‘mindfulness’. Van Dam and Haslam (2017) argued that mindfulness lacked a precise or agreed definition or purpose. Nonetheless, a study by Czajkowski and Greasley (2015) found a degree of efficacy in supporting singers to develop mindful approaches to breathing, micro-muscular awareness, vocal tone, text communication, and problem solving. Osborne, Greene, and Immel (2014) conducted a study that drew on occupational and sports performance techniques and gave students strategies, that included “channelling performance energy, developing confidence, improving self-talk, learning and memorizing music, mental rehearsal, building courage, recovering from mistakes, dealing with adversity, and becoming mentally tough” (p. 1). Self-reports from 31 students found that these strategies led to a reduction in performance anxiety, improved preparation, confidence, focus, concentration, resilience, and courage. The differences and overlaps in approach among these studies suggest that the nature of, and relationships between, flow (or mindfulness) and anxiety are not yet established. One emerging view is that, because anxiety is so far removed from a relaxed state, a useful strategy might be to seek to connect with feelings of excitement on the basis that these two share the common quality of arousal. As Ullen, de Manzano, Theorell, and Harmat (2010) suggested:

… flow is a state of arousal, but it is accompanied not by the shallow respiration characteristic of mental effort but rather by the deep respiration typical of joyous states. This is compatible with our proposal that the flow state is the result of an interaction between positive affect and attention. (p. 211)

Similarly, in her research into the management of states of arousal, social psychologist Wood Brooks (2013) observed:

Anxiety and excitement have divergent effects on performance, but the experience of these two emotions is quite similar. They are both felt in anticipation of events and are characterized by high arousal. Unlike anxious versus calm feelings, which differ in high versus low arousal, anxiety and excitement are arousal congruent, and minimal interventions may be sufficient to produce feelings of excitement. (p. 1144)

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The results of Wood Brooks’s study showed that a significant reduction in anxiety could be produced in some cases by simply saying to one’s self before performances, “I am excited” (p. 1144).

In light of this diversity of concepts and approaches to the management of performance states, I suggest there is a benefit in exploring how performance states fit into broader understandings of human cognition. The research of Nobel Prize-winning behavioural psychologist Daniel Kahneman is at the basis of the contemporary discipline of behavioural economics. His work demonstrates how mental shortcuts can result in biased decisions, and how the avoidance of cognitive effort in favour of fast heuristic processes delivers imperfect, if adequate, answers to difficult questions (Denham, 2012). Kahneman (2011) suggested that the clearest way to communicate the workings of our cognition was to posit the existence of two thought systems with specific characteristics:

• “System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control; and • System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice and concentration” (p. 20).

The level of automaticity in our System 1 processes derives from the combination of human biological preparedness for perception of the world around us, and prolonged practice of other mental activities. System 2, however, involves extremely diverse functions that share one common feature: they require our attention (Kahneman, 2011). Kahneman acknowledged the work of Csikszentmihalyi on flow and noted that people sometimes expend “considerable effort for long periods of time without having to expend willpower” (p. 40). He also noted that the term flow had become part of the language but, in his two-system schema, he preferred to describe this (clinically unproven) third cognitive system as “effortless attending” (pp. 40–41).

Debate over the complex, multifactored construct of flow states is relevant to an understanding of performance states. I found three research papers that addressed the apparent paradox of effortless attention and its relationship to flow theory. Ullen et al. (2010), writing on the physiological correlates of flow, investigated “whether high attention during

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flow is not only phenomenologically but also physiologically different from effortful attention” (p. 205). On the basis of self-report questionnaires, the authors identified two specific traits that may be closely related to the experience of flow; namely, intrinsic enjoyment and boredom coping, which is understood as performing boring tasks in ways that make them more intrinsically rewarding.

Bergamin (2017) considered the relationship between two opposing propositions: that expert performances occurring ‘in the flow’ operate automatically in a non-conceptual mode of thought, but that experts are engaged in constant monitoring which relies on explicit thinking. He argued for the possibility that ‘esoteric expert’ performance was comprised of overlapping layers of automatic processes and effortful thought and, in an important way, that the core of even esoteric expertise involved a state that preceded, or was beyond, thinking. Although the complex relationship between automatic action and explicit thought is still unknown, he identified two cognitive states that may apply: 1) thinking ‘in the gaps’ of two moments of automatic processing; and 2) moments of focus, or ‘nudges’ that occur during practised actions to prompt embodied knowledge (Bergamin, 2017).

In the third paper that addressed the paradox between attention and flow, Marty-Dugas and Smilek (2018) conceptualised flow as ‘deep and effortless concentration’ with application in two contexts; namely, internal (thought) and external (actions). In regard to studies that measure the experience of flow using the nine facet model (see Table 1) they disagreed with the practice of equally weighting all facets, because some facets are more common and characteristic to the experience compared to others, which are rarely reported. In their view, aside from effortless concentration, the eight other facets in the flow model are either precursors or consequences of flow, which may make the achievement of flow more or less likely, more or less deeply experienced, and have more or less impact on the person having the experience. Reappraising past studies, Marty-Dugas and Smilek found that, where there was no increase in experiences of effortless concentration, there was, arguably, no difference in flow. Their focus on the core element of deep effortless concentration also allowed for the possibility of an internal experience of flow that did not require external tasks, such as the flow facets of ‘action-awareness merging’ and ‘skill/challenge balance’, and therefore included daydreaming as an experience that might have the essential qualities of flow. Flow has at times been described as a state of absorption. They suggested that there had been a

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failure to integrate studies of flow and absorption, in part because absorption had been studied at the level of trait, using a scale specifically designed to capture measures of over- engagement, which suggested maladaptive levels of absorption that correlate to dissociation and procrastination (Marty-Dugas & Smilek, 2018). Marty-Dugas and Smilek’s theory, that flow states are a combination of deep effortless concentration interwoven with short bursts of effortful attending, resonates strongly with my experience. Their suggestion that inner states of flow are possible, speaks to the pleasure that I associate with prediction, fantasy, and simulation—internal activities that are central to preparation for, and reflection on, performance.

In her book on memory and identity, neurologist Montague (2018) described creativity as a synergy between mind wandering systems, associated with imagining the future and remembering the past, and the executive control network that is involved in working memory and in organising and evaluating our thoughts and keeping them on track. This synergy is then flavoured by our personality traits: “Creativity is a soup of heritability and environment and experience, of neurotransmitters and networks. Of focussed attention and mind wandering. Of openness and novelty-seeking” (Montague, 2018, p. 182). This image of fluidity and complexity also resonates strongly with my experience. Thus performance, in my view, might be described as being driven by the engine room of fantasy and imagination, harnessed to the steering mechanisms of strategy and goals, and motivated by personal drives.

PERFORMANCE AND EMOTION

… most emotional reactions to music do not involve implications for goals in life, which explains why they are regarded as mysterious … (Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008, p. 560)

In this section I focus on key theories and studies of emotions in music and the voice that are relevant to my topic. My research methodology was greatly influenced by Juslin and Vastfjall’s (2008) article, which identified six underlying processes that have the capacity to induce emotion in the listener: “(1) brain stem reflexes, (2) evaluative conditioning, (3) emotional contagion, (4) visual imagery, (5) episodic memory, and (6) musical expectancy” (p. 563). Based on a comprehensive review of the existing evidence, their framework focused

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on how music induced emotion in order to bypass the unresolved debate over what emotions were evoked by music. They reported that debates on the nature of musical emotion had centred on the distinction between music-evoked emotions and those that were defined as every day or basic emotions, which were usually happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, but were sometimes love or tenderness as well. The primary criticism they made of previous studies of music and emotion was that functional mechanisms that underlie emotion in music had not been factored into research methods.

Juslin and Vastfjall did, however, find that there was an emerging consensus about the components of emotional response, as described in Scherer’s component process model (2005, 2009). The components in this model included cognitive evaluation of objects and events, regulation of bodily systems, motivated preparation for action, expressive communication of behavioural intention, and subjective monitoring of internal states and interactions (Scherer, 2005). Scherer described the common understanding of ‘aesthetic emotions’ as being different from basic emotions:

… aesthetic emotions are produced by the appreciation of the intrinsic qualities of the beauty of nature, or the qualities of a work of art or an artistic performance. Examples of such aesthetic emotions are being moved or awed, being full of wonder, admiration, bliss, ecstasy, fascination, harmony, rapture, solemnity … the most commonly reported bodily symptoms for intense aesthetic experiences are goose pimples, shivers, or moist eyes—all rather diffuse responses which contrast strongly with the arousal and action-oriented responses for many utilitarian emotions. (pp. 706–707)

Contrary to this proposition, Juslin and Vastfjall (2008) argued that music was able to produce reactions across all components of emotion, including appraisal, subjective feeling, arousal, expression, action, and regulation. They found the main benefit in Scherer’s component process model was that it enabled harmonisation of branches of research that were otherwise in contradiction. It also allowed for the possibility of mixed emotions where different mechanisms were activated together in various combinations (Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008). This finding is relevant to the complexity of the relationship between the experience and expression of emotion in performance. 30

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Similarly, Cespedes-Guevara and Eerola (2018) argued that the construct of basic emotions has meant that many studies have not captured the richness offered by music in everyday settings. In their view, a dimensional model of emotion was better able to capture the range and impact of musical expressivity. The dimensional approach used a three-dimensional space to locate feelings at a point between axes of valence (positive–negative), arousal (calm–excited), and tension (tense–relaxed). This approach has been very influential in research on emotions, although due to difficulty in consistently identifying the third dimension of tension, researchers often limit themselves to valence and arousal (Scherer, 2005). Of relevance to my research is Cespedes-Guevara and Eerola’s argument that meaning in music weaves together automatic and context-specific materials, including the listener’s moods and goals, the performers’ gestures and expressions, and the wider meaning of the event. Yet another approach was offered by Russell (2009), who explored the relationship between core affect and psychological construction in the perception of emotion in music. In this view, core affect was a constantly evolving, simple underlying state or feeling (good or bad, energetic or lethargic), from which instances called emotion were constructed in a variety of ways, depending on the particular circumstances of the particular individual, and not based in general laws.

Theories of emotion appear to be an area of some disagreement and consequently I have compared five studies that investigate emotions in the voice to gain an overview of the discourse that relates to my particular study:

1. Mapping emotions into acoustic space: The role of voice production

• Patel, Scherer, Björkner, and Sundberg (2011) investigated the extent to which the expression of emotions was mediated by voice quality.

• Method: Acoustic analysis of short affect bursts provided by professional actors.

• Results/conclusions: A degree of validity for the mapping of acoustic markers of tension, perturbation and frequency to the dimensional model of emotion.

2. Comparing the acoustic expression of emotion in the speaking and the singing voice

• Scherer, Sundberg, Tamarit, and Salomão (2015) examined the similarities and differences in the expression of emotion in the singing and the speaking voice.

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• Method: Acoustic analysis of short affect bursts provided by professional actors.

• Results/conclusions: Some correlations were found between sound pressure, tempi, vibrato, intensity and states of arousal, and perceived emotions, showing that singers used voice quality and dynamics to communicate emotion, but mostly tended to privilege vibrato. 3. The expression of emotion in the singing voice: Acoustic patterns in vocal performance

• Scherer, Sundberg, Fantini, Trznadel, and Eyben (2017) focused on the acoustic correlates of emotional expression in the singing voice.

• Method: Experienced opera singers were asked to represent nine basic emotions in examples stripped of musical or textual emotional information.

• Results/conclusions: They found contrasts between sadness and tenderness on the one hand, and anger, joy, and pride, based on loudness, vocal dynamics, high perturbation variation, and a tendency for high low-frequency energy. 4. Mapping 24 emotions conveyed by brief human vocalization

• Cowen, Elfenbein, Laukka, and Keltner (2018) sought to identify distinct kinds of emotions, the communication of valence and/or arousal, and whether recognition of the expression of emotions was discrete or continuous.

• Method: Analysis of the judgments of 2,032 emotional vocal bursts produced in two existing laboratory studies.

• Results/conclusions: They found that vocal bursts conveyed at least 24 distinct kinds of emotion that were not discrete, but were bridged by smooth gradients with continuously varying meaning. 5. Emotion recognition from singing voices using contemporary commercial music and classical styles

• Hakanpää, Waaramaa, and Laukkanen (2019) examined the recognition of emotion in contemporary commercial music (CCM) and classical styles of singing.

• Method: Trained and experienced singers, in CCM, classical technique, or both, provided short vocal samples in the two styles, and listeners were asked which emotion they heard.

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• Results/conclusions: They found statistically significant differences in the recognition of emotions between classical (24.5%) and CCM (34.5%) styles of singing. They found pitch affected the perception of emotions, and valence and activity were more easily recognised than emotions.

The research methods in these studies do not transfer usefully to my area of research based on the data they use. The samples of voice used in these studies were narrowly defined and artificially constructed. Important elements of singing, such as the relationship of prosody and text, and lyrics and melody were excluded in order to create measurable, irreducible sound objects. A number of these studies also seemed to fail to perceive that the Venn diagram of ‘singer’ and ‘opera singer’ is not a circle. For these reasons it could be argued that these research methods lack relevance to singing styles such as jazz, which may avoid the prominent acoustic marker of heavy vibrato so prominent in Scherer et al.’s (2015) research, or African American gospel singing that prioritises perceived sincerity over balanced phonation, which was seen as the aim for all singers in the research of Hakanpää et al. (2019). Overall, my area of investigation, the singing performer’s experience, is not well served by experimental methodologies that exclude a range of communication processes central to everyday performance settings. This review of the literature has highlighted the need for a greater range of musicological research into the nature of emotional communication in the practices of more diverse singing performers, studied in everyday performance settings.

Emerging understandings of the role of underlying processes may be useful to a consideration of emotional processes in performance. Barrett (2017) argued that the neuroscience research of the past two decades demanded a paradigm shift in relation to the study of mental processes, including emotions. Rather than begin with a set of emotion categories to be tested, Barrett chose to work from evidence of the function and structure of the brain. In her view, emotional experiences were context-dependent episodes that emerged from the combination of more basic psychological and physiological processes, so that meaning was not the trigger for our actions but the result of actions that lie beneath the level of awareness. Barrett’s approach suggests a plausible explanation for the fluid, continually evolving meanings that emerge through singing performance. Of particular relevance is Barrett’s insight that mental simulations are embodied, whole brain representations that anticipate 33

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upcoming sensory events, and the best action to deal with them. The consequence of mental simulation for bodily and emotional responses is entirely relevant to the use of imagination to enrich emotional communication in singing performance.

Overall, the arguments in this area that most strongly aligned with my research framework include Juslin and Vastfjall’s (2008) claim that emotions are evoked by underlying mechanisms; Scherer’s model (2009) proposing that these processes operate through multiple components and systems; and Barrett’s (2017) assertion that emotions, and the meaning we make of them, emerge from the combination of such processes. All three sources made a strong case for the view that our behaviour and experiences are the result of emergent, embodied processes motivated by both internal and external factors, thus grounding the ideal of a ‘holistic’ performance within the ambit of our shared human capacities.

PERFORMANCE AND EMPATHY

In this section I focus on the functional nature of empathetic processes. I draw on perspectives found in theories of social cognition. Within this discipline, empathy is described as the product of multilayered, enactive processes that occur in the context of personal motivation and shared narrative. This perspective aligns well with the constructivist models of emotion discussed above. It also implicates multiple layers of underlying processes in combination, contributing to complex negotiations of self and others relevant to a functional understanding of singing performance.

Behavioural scientist Jean Decety has authored and co-authored many articles on the functional nature of empathy. Decety and Lamm (2006) described the phenomena of empathy as “a sense of similarity between the feelings one experiences and those expressed by others … an interaction between any two individuals, with one experiencing and sharing the feeling of the other” (p. 1146). Addressing how empathy works, Decety and Svetlova (2012) argued that empathy was a product of interactions between biological and psychological processes, combining the underlying processes of simulation with the complex and motivated workings of compassion. According to Decety and Grèzes (2006) “… the simulation process can be conceived as a conscious reactivation of previously executed actions stored in memory” (p. 5).

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Through simulation, we may feel a sense of similarity to another through immersion in our own remembered or re-enacted experiences. A sense of how nuanced and complicated these processes can be is described by pop singer Tracy Thorn (2015) in her response to recordings of Dusty Springfield’s singing. Although aware that Springfield had suffered distressing self- consciousness in listening to her own recorded voice, yet, through simulation, these same performances evoked Thorn’s embedded motivations and expectations:

If I could sing those songs the way that she sang them, I’d be so proud, is what I’d think. I’d be so fulfilled. I know it isn’t true; I know it isn’t as simple as that, and yet I fall into the same trap as every deluded listener. It’s what singing does to us. It makes us so happy that we imagine it must come from happiness, mustn’t it? Otherwise, it just doesn’t seem fair. That we should be having all the fun. (Thorn, 2015)

The embodied simulations that underlie empathy and social cognition are evident in the identification Thorn feels with Springfield’s voice. But Thorn’s reflections indicate how representations of emotion in singing performance can be complicated, from both ends of the communication.

Decety and Svetlova (2012) differentiated key concepts, processes, and behaviours variously associated with the construct of empathy (see Table 2). This list transcends the ongoing debates among competing theories of empathy in the literature, which appear to parallel debates on models of emotion. Five of the concepts listed may be particularly relevant to singing performance, including emotion contagion, empathy, emotion regulation and mentalising, and, in cases of negative experiences, the aversive stimuli of personal distress.

I found support for the role of multileveled embedded capacities, or underlying processes, in the writing of philosopher, Shaun Gallagher (2008a). He argued that social cognition is a product of embodied social interaction by situated agents able to draw meaning, at least in part, from context and habitual ways of knowing. He disputed a school of thought, described as simulationist theories, in favour of a model that relied on learned, shared narratives that allowed our imagination to exceed the boundaries of personal experience (Gallagher, 2012). Gallagher defined empathy as:

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McGann and De Jaegher (2009) advocated for an ‘enactivist approach’ to social cognition which encompassed “the entire ongoing relationship between an agent and its environment in which its values are adaptively maintained” (p. 421). They described the process of ‘sense- making’, by which the autonomous agent interacts with the environment in order to construct meanings and values, directed by the agent’s identity, and which, in a circular process, maintains that identity. They also described social interactions as ‘self-other contingencies’ in which “we effectively produce contingencies between ourselves and others and explore the social landscape through a mastery of them” (p. 430). This perspective supports a view of performance as a self-other contingency calling for extraordinary levels of mastery, considering the singer is engaged in sense-making in cooperation with sometimes thousands of ‘others’. There is also relevance in the writing of social scientist Zaki (2014), whose account aligns with both narrative empathy and enactivist theories. To resolve tension between the automatic underlying processes (such as simulation) and our responses to context, Zaki proposed that empathy was often a motivated phenomenon. Within the individual, motivation may bias perception towards desired objects, cause modulation of empathetic response, be primed by goals, and pre-emptively shape emotion processes. This can be related to the expectations and motivations that audiences bring to a performance.

Kaschak and Maner (2009) argued that embodied approaches to cognition implied that our brains and nervous systems evolved to allow us to plan and execute actions in the world, in particular our important social worlds. Adaptive systems also explain how our motivations shape and bring certain stimulus to the fore in our perceptions. As to the driving force behind the motivation to perform, it seems apt to quote Kaschak, Maner, Miller, and Coyle (2009) on the role of emotion in embodied cognition:

The dynamic links between emotion, motivation, and action are embodied deeply within the cognitive system, and grounded firmly in the organism’s basic sensory motor systems. These links are constrained by evolutionary factors—the specific emotions, goals, and actions likely to be embodied are precisely those that have been relevant to solving important adaptive problems throughout evolutionary history. Hence, at the center of an embodied view of the evolved social mind resides not just the capacity for reason, but the capacity for passion as well. (p. 1255)

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Considered together, these sources suggest that empathy is embodied and motivated in the context of a social environment. Drawing on Gallagher’s theory of narrative empathy, the singing performer can access established narratives so that the audience may accept and appreciate the performance. Considering Zaki’s motivated empathy, feelings of kinship and relatedness may also support the success of a performance. McGann and De Jaegher’s enactivist approach also resonates here, as our shared “social practices, rituals, grammars, narrative tropes, and social mores” (p. 431) support a collective mode of participatory sense- making. In considering Kaschak and Maner’s writing on embodied social cognition, it might be argued that the management of the audience’s empathy, feelings of kinship, and pro-social motivations are woven into the role of the performer.

PERFORMANCE AND IDENTITY

An understanding that heightened performance states may be unlike everyday experiences prompts investigation of how singers integrate performance into the story of the self. In her co-written memoir about her performance debut in the 1950s, country music singer Maxine Brown wrote:

The feeling I took home with me that night was way above anything I’d ever felt before and maybe since. It wasn’t real to me. It was a movie, and everything was in shadows on a white, blinding screen. All my life, it seemed, I had been standing on one side looking over to the better side, and that night for a few brief minutes I had stepped across the line. (Brown & Hall, 2005, p. 42)

How do singers understand such powerful and apparently mysterious experiences? In this section I begin with sources that explore the complex processes by which singers’ identities are interpreted by the listener. I then consider a number of studies of singer’s performance experiences.

Arguably the sound of the singer’s voice in itself carries information about identity more directly than instrumental music is able to do. Eerola, Vuoskoski, Peltola, Putkinen, and Schäfer (2018) state that instrumental music:

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… emulates the expressive qualities of human vocal communication and movement … and conveys a sense of agency; both as intentional sounds organized and produced by a human agent … as well as in the form of a “virtual person” or an imaginary persona inhabiting the music. (p. 107)

If human agency is successfully conveyed by instrumental music, one might argue that singing may do something different, perhaps something that touches more directly on the listener’s sense of self, and by extension, their sense of the singer’s identity. This may be a factor in the perception by listeners of a close relationship between the song and the singer, especially in popular music. This may implicate both the information carried by the sound of the voice and the narrative materials in the song that is sung. This phenomenon is considered from the perspective of aesthetics by Bicknell (2005), who discussed the potential for withdrawal of approval when singers choose ‘the wrong song’. She stated, “Although we accept for the most part that actors play at being someone else, we expect singers, at some level, to be themselves, or at least to be true to the persona they have established” (p. 267).

Sociomusicologist Frith (1996), in his influential book Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music, suggested that, while classical concerts drew attention to the performed works, pop concerts drew attention to the performer, and that through the combination of actions and responses between participants, this attention produced a heightened intensity of communication. Frith identified characteristics of pop music performance including: “a kind of routinized transcendence” (p. 41); that song lyrics were not about ideas but rather a rhetoric that existed only through performance; that melodies impacted the meaning of the lyrics by formalising stress in the reading; and that the sung lyric presented a complicated layering of identities with regard to who was narrating the song, particularly given that, with well-known voices, there was an assumption that we could “hear someone’s life in their voice” (p. 186). Layers of identity may include the song’s protagonist; other characters who are quoted in the lyrics; the singers themselves, especially if they already possess a star persona; and the listener’s preferred reading of the character of the singer. Considering the embodied nature of listening to the voice, Frith argued that we were unable to hear the voice as an instrument because:

… it stands for the person more directly than any other musical device [because] … we can sing along, reconstruct in fantasy our own sung 39

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versions of songs, in ways we can’t even fantasize instrumental technique—however hard we may try with our air guitars—because with singing, we feel we know what to do. (1996, p. 192)

Frith focused on the complex layering of simulations and appraisals that occurred within the listener. My research documents the singer’s side, their experience and understanding of this transaction.

A number of studies on opera and classical singing have explored the inner experience of the singer. In a theoretical paper “Empathy as a tool for embodiment processes in vocal performance” musicologist Heisel (2015) described the multidimensional nature of communication in opera performance:

The music performance experience functions as a multi-faceted vortex of communication passing not only between performers, between audience members, and between collective and individual subsets of performers and audience members, but also between the characters realized through the performance, whether embodied by the performers or not (orchestral tone poems, for example, may create a character without actual embodiment), and finally creating links across time as performers and audience members engage, in a sense, with a composer. (p. 104)

Heisel (2015) suggested that the performer’s relationship with the character they portray was an intimate communication from which flowed the potential for connections to be made by the audience with both the performer and their role. Heisel also suggested that empathy supported compassionate understanding, “as the artistic experience challenges previously held ideas of human ability (2015, p. 106). To facilitate the skills acquisition of young performers, Heisel advocated self-reflection to support the development of their empathetic imagination.

In a study of four classical singers, Davidson (2007) explored the mental and physical processes of singing. She reported that singers, like other athletes, dancers, and artists, relied on metaphor and allusion to stimulate thoughts and actions and to form the internal representations that were precursors to important automated skills. Her observations on the interaction of thought, action, and embodied skills indicated how the abilities that underlie 40

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singing performance converge. In an earlier study analysing the role of embodiment in solo pop music performance, Davidson (2001) suggested that the performer relied on automatic bodily uses, including the management of arousal states. She considered the potential rewards of flow states and the influence of the audience on the performance, citing evidence for the view that all participants need to share the language (or ‘code’) of the music being performed. On the subjects of motivation and context, her observations resonate with enactive theories of social cognition reviewed in the previous section. Of particular relevance to my research perspective is Davidson’s observation that “the performer can vary the kind of engagement he/she has with the audience, alternating between outward and inward focus and concerns of narration and pure display” (2001, p. 246).

In “The Singer’s Paradox”, Cochrane, Fantini, and Scherer (2013) investigated how opera singers managed internal processes that supported the external representation of emotion and identity, and the role of imagination, fantasy, and memory in their performance techniques. The researchers asked, “Will a singer achieve a stronger effect on the audience when he or she actually experiences at least part of the emotion that is expressed in an aria or recitative?” (p. 3). They suggested that the representation of emotion was a more complicated task for the singer than the actor because of the physical constraints imposed by the production of the singing itself. The mental constraints were also challenging. One of their research participants reported this experience:

It’s like having my brain split and one half is working on the technical aspect … at least in the most difficult moments, there are two of me there: the one who is doing it and the one who is telling the one who is doing it how to do it and reminding him not to let himself run away with the feeling and keep the control. (Cochrane et al., 2013, p. 7)

The paradox of the title refers to the dilemma of whether the best performance is produced through forms of pretence or through some stronger, more genuine experience of the emotion being called for in the work. They argued that everyday behaviour possessed elements of performance as we all attempt to present ourselves in ways that are of benefit. They also made distinctions between the production processes of emotion expression and subjective evaluations. Ultimately, they argued that qualities of authenticity and artificiality were not clear cut, and that these kinds of discriminations existed on a spectrum. They concluded that 41

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the idea of ‘real emotions’ was redundant, and that immediate experiences of emotion on stage were in fact likely to work against the artistic materials.

I opened this section with the argument by Eerola, Vuoskoski, Peltola, Putkinen, and Schäfer (2018) that instrumental music imitates the embedded sense of agency listeners perceive in the voice. I then reviewed Frith’s (1996) writing on the multileveled communication of identity that is carried through popular music performance. Perspectives on performance psychology were considered in Heisel’s (2015) writing on empathy in performance, Davidson’s (2001, 2007) on embodiment, and Cochrane et al.’s (2013) on imagination and emotion. These authors speak to underlying processes by which performers and audiences perceive, interpret, and enact in performance. As in my research, all three studies were also based on performers’ self-reports, an acknowledgement that singers have valuable understandings about their inner experiences of singing performance to share.

While there is limited literature that aligns precisely with the specific study set of this research, the reviewed material provides strong general support, from a range of related perspectives, for the view that singing performance is a deeply embedded human behaviour drawing on interwoven underlying processes. On this basis, the selected sources have focused on processes that prepare us to sing and be heard in ways that produce shared states and shared meaning. In Sapiens: A brief history of humankind, Yuval Harari (2014) argued that the ability to imagine collectively supported our cooperation with people we have never met, thus making human societies possible. Arguably, the collective sharing of imaginary narratives is central to singing performance, and performers’ psychological experience may be considered a crucial factor in enriching such sharing. This is of direct relevance to the functional operations of singing performance because it links ancient evolutionary processes with the present. Our embrace of singing performance may be public, like the communal worship of Florence Welch, or private, like the dissonance Tracey Thorn experienced listening to Dusty Springfield, but songs and singing are everywhere. They frame and explain our desires, emotions, identities, and communities. The next chapter will outline this study’s research framework and elaborate further on the multilayered, immersive phenomenon of performance. It is hoped that the interviews and personal reflections collected using the framework will add to the body of literature on singing performance by addressing some of the gaps left by other studies through their sometimes limited perspectives.

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The framework began as an artificial segmentation of the ‘holistic’ nature of performance. In this first draft, five underlying processes were contained within the boundaries of the performer, with social and cultural contexts envisioned as external conditions. In the final framework these processes were incorporated into one list for further simplicity.

In the evolution of the model, ‘perception’ evolved into ‘bodily processes’. From the beginning, cognition was characterised as processes operating beneath the level of awareness, such as simulations, assumptions and biases while ‘mental processes’ were characterised as those over which we exercise conscious volition, including effortful processes of planning, imagination and reflection (Decety & Svetlova, 2012; Gallagher, 2012; Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008; Kahneman, 2011; Montague, 2018). Psychology seemed to be too broad a category to function as a prompt for self-reflection, so ‘sense of self’ was chosen as a relevant category of self-knowledge. In the final framework, the listing of the processes ranged from the most internally influenced to the most externally influenced. These were:

1. Cognitive processes, 2. Bodily processes, 3. Emotional processes, 4. Mental processes, 5. Sense of self, 6. Social processes, and, 7. Cultural processes.

In this chapter I describe my understanding of the functional nature of these processes, providing each with a short, preliminary description. Using longer descriptions, I then weave together sources and consider the processes in terms of positive function as applied to the context of performance. In this study, positive function relates to healthy and/or pleasant effects, and negative function to unhealthy or unpleasant effects, with the proviso that both may occur across a spectrum or in a mixture, simultaneously.

An important visual element in the conceptualisation and realisation of the research methods was the use of a suite of graphic icons to accompany descriptions of the underlying processes. I briefed designer Wendy Clark to draw on familiar forms of symbolism, such as the heart for emotion and the brain for mental processes, in homage to vintage anatomical

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instance, the increased inclusion of performers from diverse backgrounds, which has been addressed through funded programs (Throsby & Petetskaya, 2017).

Applying the framework

Each of the categories of underlying processes of performance contributes to the creation of singing performance. From the deeply embedded aspects of our cognitive processes that allow us to form and decode the fabric of sung communications, such as pitches, durations, words, and non-verbal expression, to the community values that support institutions like the Queensland Conservatorium to train performers for specific roles, every aspect of performance is worthy of investigation. In the next three chapters I apply this framework through an autoethnographic performance method (Chapter 4), an online survey of singers (Chapter 5), and interviews with singing teachers (Chapter 6) in order to gather and compare singers’ self-reflections on the experience of performance.

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CHAPTER 4: RECITAL—CREATIVE PROCESSES AND FINDINGS

THE RECITAL RECORDING: ‘THE SINGER’S ANATOMY’

The aim of the Doctor of Musical Arts recital was to explore the formation of my understanding of performance through the lens of the research framework. The recital was performed at 6:00 pm on 17 November 2018 at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University (see Figure 4). The 75-minute video recording of ‘The Singer’s Anatomy’ is provided at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1trMu-yYEXg4YKHdWGNxnSzxxOpgZyBE9/view?usp=sharing

Readers are requested to view the video before continuing to read the exegesis.

Figure 4: Recital invitation Credits: Singers: Musician/arrangers: Technicians: Pearly Black Steve Russell (piano) Mark Smith—sound recording Sharon Moore Jamie Clark (guitar) Liz Pickering—videography Annie Peterson Helen Russell (bass) Helen Russell

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Creative processes

The recital wove together memories of formative experiences of performance with personal images and emblematic song choices. The research framework was woven into the structure of the recital, using quotes from the literature matched to the suite of graphic icons. The creative method for the recital performance developed across four stages:

1. The original DMA application in early 2016 proposed two performances: an autoethnographic solo concert and a group devised concert; 2. A précis of autoethnographic self-reflections was presented to audiences at the music cabaret ‘Women in Voice’ in late 2016; 3. An experimental method for creating and disrupting the functions of the underlying processes was explored in 2017; and 4. In 2017 and 2018, the final stage generated a script, the musical arrangements, and personnel and production elements.

The first stage of the original Doctor of Musical Arts proposal comprised a group performance that would bring together participants of diverse practice with regard to style, status, age, and experience including members of a musical ensemble supported by a local mental health service. The goal was to lead a collaborative creative process, focusing on the proposition that performance potentially enhances participants’ sense of well-being. I subsequently realised that, while this method would have showcased my values, it may not directly have answered my research questions. My goal, to achieve both a positive, uplifting group process, and to meet the research goals simultaneously, was too ambitious.

The second stage was a reflexive exploration of singing performance presented in the 2016 edition of music cabaret ‘Women in Voice‘ at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. The song, “This Gift” (recital video at 10:31), was written with Helen Russell, who set my lyrics to music. The lyrics reflect on the phenomenon of listeners taking pleasure in sad songs. The experience of talking and singing about performance to an audience, estimated at 1,800 people over four shows, was extremely valuable in the development of the final work. This experience crystallised central concepts for the recital, which was about transparency in methods, singing about singing, and drawing attention to the machinery of performance within the performance.

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The development of the research framework in late 2017 prompted the third stage of experimentation with guitarist Dave McGuire. I wanted to explore methods that would allow me to deconstruct the audience’s expectations and illustrate underlying processes at work. For instance, I could disrupt the tempi, cadences, melodies, and texts in the materials. At a different level, I could inform the audience in the exposition that I intended to move them to tears, invite them to resist me, then elicit emotional responses anyway. This process would have produced a very different style of presentation from the recital as it was finally performed. Unfortunately, Dave became unwell early in the process and development halted.

The final stage built on insights from the three earlier stages, and drew on my skills as a performer and producer. In the script I wrote about my formative experiences of performance. In the introduction to their Handbook of Autoethnography, Holman Jones, Adams, and Ellis (2013) discussed the personal stories that brought them to the practice of autoethnography, and found that “… one common characteristic that binds all autoethnographies is the use of personal experience to examine and/or critique cultural experience” (p. 22). The recital, as the artistic research component of this DMA, shares this characteristic. Through self-writing, the recital connected my personal story to my context, my family, and my culture. It was also an interactive and reflexive method of exploring contradictions and tensions in the formation of my understanding of performance. The recital, therefore, presented analysis, perhaps even synthesis, of both my personal and professional worlds. In their introduction to Autoethnography: Process, Product, and Possibility for Critical Social Research, Hughes and Pennington (2017) categorised 22 autoethnographic approaches. One category that could be compared to my artistic research is ‘critical performance autoethnography’, in which elements of creativity, artistry, and analysis are applied in the service of activism, intervention, and struggles for social justice.

Another artistic method that had bearing on the creative development of the recital was the literary method of memoir. While the socially-just aims of critical performance ethnography are relevant to my values-oriented performance practice, artistic concerns were, arguably, also crucial in shaping the tone, structure, and style of this recital. In January 2018, I attended a masterclass in memoir writing with the eminent Australian author and memoirist Kristina Olsson. Olsson (2015) argued that although writers are inherently unreliable witnesses, they have the capacity to serve the truth. Her observation that “We assume what we see is what

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others see” (p. 68) resonated strongly with my understanding of the unreliable, motivated, impressionistic processes of memory that are inherent to self-reflection and to self-writing. Olsson concluded that writers “can’t make claims for the truth and we shouldn’t be asked to … our best effort, and our best writing, will be in service of the truth” (p. 69). She identified the evocation of insight as the primary purpose of self-reflection. Perhaps both the research method of autoethnography and the literary tradition of memoir meet up at this point: that there may be benefits in uncomfortable or problematic storytelling that arises from a truthful place.

In my script I talked about my relationships with others. This raised potentially uncomfortable elements and problematic concerns. In considering relational ethics, I was able to draw on previous experience. In my 2015 Masters of Music Research recital, ‘The Pleasure of Sad Songs’, I shared sensitive stories of caring for family members living with chronic mental health disorders. The ethical processes around that project were rigorous and informative. Based on this, and on my experiences of facilitating music projects with members of the mental health and disability communities, I understood that my narrative, where it included others, would require careful, respectful ethical management.

In putting together the performance ensemble, I chose a group of singers and musicians with whom I share thirty-years of collaboration. Acknowledgement of our long relationships was woven into the performance, creating a transparent, but still encompassing, mise en scène (the setting or surroundings) as a platform for the singing and speeches. In theatrical terms, there was no ‘fourth wall’. The audience themselves were part of the performance. The lyrics for a new song ‘Sing My Song for You’ specifically acknowledged my side of our relationship. This lyric was set to music by guitarist, Jamie Clark. I commissioned Jamie and pianist Steve Russell to arrange the music.

The final recital script matched self-narratives to emblematic songs, counterpointed with personal photographs, and associated with the most relevant of the seven processes, which were represented by the icons and apt quotes from the academic literature. The challenge was to establish conventions that communicated the research aims while leaving enough space for my own artistic growth. The artistic goal was to avoid a repetitive rhythm in the disposition of story, song, and concept. The final structure is shown in Table 4.

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In relation to my writing about others, during a writing retreat in Spain in August 2018, I reflected back on formative experiences I had shared with my mother and sister. This was a poignant process because my sister died unexpectedly in surgery in February 2018, and my mother died from the effects of dementia in July 2018. The challenge was to balance my truth with the knowledge that, although now beyond all distress, in life both Ruth (my sister) and Mavis (my mother) were defensive, from my perspective, often reacting from a place of shame and denial. I also needed to consider risks associated with my brother Noel’s attendance at the recital, given that references to our mother and sister might prompt negative emotions. Aged 66 and living in residential care, Noel has been taking strong anti-psychotic medications since the age of 16 and still experiences persistent delusions and auditory hallucinations. I made subtle changes in the text to minimise any foreseeable risks, and I included a slide acknowledging both him and my daughter as my remaining family members. I also needed to consider the stories of old friends.

Meg Kanowski wrote the lyrics for ‘Second Sight’ with me in 1997 from Jamie Clark’s music. We became estranged in 2002 and, sadly, Meg died in 2017. I wanted to acknowledge her teachings on the craft of writing, so I consulted with her close friends, who also supplied the black and white portrait from the correct period to illustrate my text. I also included a work by my friend and collaborator John Rodgers, an eminent composer and improvising musician. In 2013 he had asked me to edit a translated lyric for a traditional Corsican hymn, “The Lament of Jesus” (presented as “Hear Me and Remember”). Since 2014 John has been living with an acquired brain injury. I positioned this song as the climax of the performance, contextualising it with heart-felt praise for his immense body of work. I knew I would be addressing him in the audience because I had organised his travel from Melbourne to Brisbane. The insights about performance that this recital process evoked for me are intrinsically tied up with these relationships and their evolution over three decades.

The creative decisions and production processes were finally complete. On the day of the performance, I arrived at the venue with an ensemble that was as prepared as possible (within the limits of available time) ready to perform new arrangements of treasured songs, with a script, a lighting plan, an audio visual file, a sound operator, a sound recordist, a videographer, and an audience of around 80 family, friends, and peers. Following a warm

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introduction from my supervisor, Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, the performance rolled on. After 75 minutes it was all over.

In the next section I describe the self-reflections that were evoked through the artistic research and performance process, and how these insights relate to my doctoral enquiry.

Findings

The research method, guided by the research framework, was aimed at producing reappraisals of my formative experiences, from childhood memories of listening to songs with family, to singing folk songs with my sister in exchange for cider, to creative development with recent collaborators. Montague (2018) described the process of how memories are changed, or reappraised, by the process of reflection: the context of the present moment of remembering becomes an element in the reconstruction of the memory that persists even when it is returned to storage. In the case of this creative work, the process of summoning up my memories and considering them in a new light was successful in generating new insights. In addition, the effects of sharing my memories with others through the performance added new layers of meaning to these formative experiences. This section describes some of the insights gathered through the creative processes, the recital performance, and the reflections on the video recording of the performance.

Creative processes

If creativity is a balance between the mental processes of mind wandering and executive control (Montague, 2018), the first stage of the creative process was a dreamy exploration of songs of special significance and the stories that frame them. These explorations played at the intersection between the research framework and the formation of my understanding of performance. I asked myself why I needed to sing so much as a child and young adult. This generated reflections on my drive to connect to myself and others through songs, and the role that states of deep absorption play in enabling these connections. Months were spent selecting repertoire to showcase the seven underlying processes. I pondered the musical and textual qualities of the songs, their histories, and their relationship to my sense of self. This stage in creation aligns strongly with the idea that daydreaming may constitute an internal equivalent to flow, or deep effortless concentration (Marty-Dugas & Smilek, 2018). Moving to a more strategic mode, I also considered each song in respect of its function, both as it

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audience. They also produced a sense of the beautiful and functional within my family story, and the vulnerable and dysfunctional within my performance history, blurring the binary schema.

When I was ready to move into the production phase, I made musical decisions based on the ensemble, capitalising on my collaborators’ diverse range of skills and our long association. Our musical diversity was intended to embody the underlying principle that the gifts of singing and songs transcend style and culture. Pearly Black possesses exceptional natural musicianship and has absorbed many ambitious styles, including Flamenco. Annie Peterson, the producer of ‘Women in Voice’, is a trained pianist and folk stylist. Sharon Moore is an experienced classical soprano. Helen Russell is an outstanding jazz musician, educator, and vocal arranger; she also doubled on bass. The musicians were Steve Russell and Jamie Clark. Steve is a renowned jazz pianist, and Jamie Clark is arguably the most versatile guitarist in Australia. Both are expert arrangers who were asked to arrange half of the musical material. Their brief was to showcase voices in what would usually be instrumental roles. In performance, the voices would function sometimes as harmonic beds (“Trav’lin Light”), sometimes as dramatic counterparts (“Hear Me and Remember”), and sometimes as background vocals in a classic block harmony style (“You Don’t Own Me”). In my experience, musicians have an applied knowledge of the emotional impacts that music psychology research studies seek to identify (Cespedes-Guevara & Eerola, 2018; Eerola et al., 2018; Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008; Salimpoor et al., 2011). Their expertise is a powerful immersive element that engages audience members at deeply embedded levels.

In planning the projection, I visualised the stage, and the ensemble on the stage. I imagined lighting changes and the rhythm of the visual imagery. I chose a simple style of projection to help weave the research design into the performance and complement the narration, outlining the framework in quotes announced by the accompanying singers, accompanied by projections of the graphic icons (see Figure 5), typically crossfading to informal black and white photographs of myself, family, and friends.

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Figure 5: The stage with projection

The use of personal photography was intended to suggest authenticity, adding to the intimacy of the offering. My aim was to use these repeated motifs to set up a reassuring rhythm, which could be broken for dramatic impact at a crucial point by using colour video to accompany “Trav’lin’ Light”. This visual element was an iPhone movie captured while travelling by bus in Southern Spain down the Ronda Road through an arid landscape with far off glimpses across to Africa. Run at half speed it produced a hypnotic effect. The three elements are shown in Figure 6. Claiming ownership of a visual style is an evolution of insight in my practice.

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Figure 6: Three elements: The ‘Sense of self‘ icon, Leah at 13, and a Spanish landscape

Overall, whatever my creative choices and no matter how well-conceived the elements of the performance might be, I knew that the level of audience engagement would depend on leaving space for people to make up their own minds and feel the narrative slowly evolving. The lighting, sound, audio visual elements, structure of the piece, arrangements, and sonics of the ensemble, were parts of a greater whole, and the layering of these materials was designed to resolve into a complete statement only at the very end of the presentation, so that we would all arrive there together.

Performance

The recital performance itself provided an opportunity to test my understanding of the performance exchange. Onstage, it is essential for me to let go of the roles of creator and producer to become the performer. In the week preceding the recital, I observed myself become tunnel visioned. I felt like I was sleep walking, with a fading of peripheral vision, a sense of turning inside. Onstage, that soft focus fell away and my attention became trained on immediate objectives, including immersion in a string of simulations and fantasies. Internally, when onstage, I usually pivot my focus between mental imagery, bodily feedback, and alertness to the environment, while at another level I engage in summoning memory cues and continuously monitoring music and text. Because this recital was a high-stakes situation that required me to manage a large amount of memory cues for new arrangements and production elements, my attempts to avoid pauses or lapses produced states of extremely high arousal. In addition, because memorising 70-plus minutes of material in the time available was not feasible, I relied on a cue sheet for prompts (see Figure 7).

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Figure 7: ‘The Singer‘s Anatomy’ cue sheet

Onstage, my aim was to earn the audience’s trust. Their acceptance, demonstrated in the quality of their attention, underpinned my freedom to be expressive. Experience tells me that it is the unscripted, unplanned moments that are crucial in the creation of a sense of intimacy and closeness with the audience. Ad libbing is a skill I have honed while performing in jazz and cabaret, so I used my gestures, facial expressions, and vocal mannerisms to encourage everyone to come a little closer, to empathise in response to my openness and vulnerability. Onstage I experienced physical courage. I felt wonderfully free. I took a powerful stance. I laughed and made jokes. I expressed deep emotion. I danced. I was ultra-responsive. This is not who I am in my everyday life. There is a humorous aspect to that. My daughter, sitting in the audience of a 2016 show while watching me dance the pogo, drily remarked to a friend, “She won’t even run for the bus”. But there is very serious intent behind this transformation. I believe that when I show the audience how much they influence my responses, it is an invitation to reciprocate. I may have the microphone, but inside them is where the

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performance actually occurs. They tacitly know that I need their permission to go deeply into the material, and I know that if they are cold to me, my immersion in the story of the song will only create more distance between us. We have to find the same pace, or a shared conceptual space (these are inadequate intuitive descriptions of wordless states); so that through consensus we are able to arrive together at a shared state of thought and feeling. This is the insight that I take away from these reflections. My performance skills are primarily focused on building trust with the audience, which allows me to give my most centred performance, and allows them to give back in a dynamic exchange.

There were also some personal social aspects to my engagement with audience members. My brother Noel attended with his carer. I learned later that he had been in an elevated state leading to the event, and had also travelled to the venue through a big storm. I saw him leave very early in the performance, which suggested he had experienced unmanageable anxiety. My heart sank, but I had to put that to one side. He never heard my stories or saw his name on the screen. This reflects much of my experience of trying to bring family and performance together. A group of people who attended also knew the co-writer of “Second Sight”, Meg Kanowski. Many shed tears in her memory. John Rodgers also shed tears through the performance of “Hear Me and Remember”. His family had attended, and his many friends and acquaintances in the audience had been able to meet him again and come to a better understanding of the impacts of his acquired brain injury. There were many cathartic moments for myself and my community on this night. The purpose of singing and songs for me is most purely expressed in these highly meaningful exchanges.

The video

It has been decades since I came to terms with the horror of seeing and hearing myself on recorded media. Now I am fascinated to see how I appear to others. Putting my memories and the video documentation together offered a powerful opportunity for self-compassion and artistic learning as a performer. Watching the video, I was able to observe many of the things described above. I observed that my voice, gestures, and expressions mostly flow in a relaxed and connected way. In an analysis of unscripted elements of the recital, I identified unplanned behaviours that included a fast vibrato not usually characteristic of my singing (the result of performance adrenaline), an abundance of non-verbal sounds, occasional bursts of what can only be described as silliness, and a cascade of (possibly unnecessary) illustrative

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gestures. The most common unplanned behaviour was non-scripted, often colloquial remarks identified at 15 points (14:04; 31:07; 31:51; 36:52; 48:05; 49:27; 1:00:45; 1:01:14; 1:02:30; 1:06:03; 1:06:54; 1:07:04; 1:08:07; 1:08:37; and 1:09:46). On analysis, the unplanned behaviours that appeared to produce the most positive effects included a deliberately unplanned approach to melodic phrasing, immediate feedback to the audience about shared moments, the ad libbed use of colloquialisms, and many spur-of-the-moment inventions of small units of content. But it could also be said that this spontaneous and ad libbed material carried inherent risks for messy outcomes. I recognise that I did not trust the audience enough to take my eyes off them for a second, and that occasionally my feelings of relief at having successfully delivered a difficult chunk of material produced a loss of focus on the immediate task, including a lyrics stumble in “The Female Rambling Sailor” and a pause in “Is That All There Is?”. I also regret the over-use of characteristic, sometimes infelicitous, self- deprecating humour. My insight on this behaviour is that it almost certainly derives from residual self-consciousness and a defensive urge to over-compensate that is hard to manage under pressure.

Once the moment of performance has past, it can be very challenging to understand how it impacted on others or what they took away from it. My perspective from the microphone is occupied by the necessity to hold attention, fulfil the role, progress through the cues, and dredge up mental imagery and body sensation associated with memory and fantasy. It is a very busy experience. To gather more feedback from peers, I posted the speech leading into ‘Is That All There Is?’ along with the song to Facebook (Cotterell, 2020). Four comments suggested that singers do have an insider’s viewpoint on my style. One classical singer who attended the recital was interested in the way I engage audience emotion:

… the interesting point is that the audience is skilfully manipulated into feeling sorrow and being drawn into your story while you stand apart as the narrator. This gives truth to your statement, “I will give a lot to make you cry one little tear” (personal communication, April 2020).

Another, a folk singer who also attended the recital, felt themselves to be my confidante through the performance:

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It works so well because of your preparedness to be emotionally honest & vulnerable, to tell your story, and Mavis’ story, and allow each of us, in our own way, to connect & resonate … Thanks Leah for your braveness & willingness to share, to be vulnerable & to reach out to all of us as your trusted confidantes/audience. (Personal communication, April 2020)

A third response from a classical singer was most focused on how the story was woven into the music:

This is an amazing teaching and learning contribution of the importance of the voice as story teller within ensemble and music. The instruments as part of it all. Very moving. (Personal communication, April 2020)

The fourth comment came from a comic cabaret singer who was most struck by the relationship between story and song:

There is something so powerful in the ordinary tragedy of life as you tell it here. I loved the way you wrapped the truth of your story around that song. Beautiful arrangement and glorious voices to help you on your way. (Personal communication, April 2020)

The process of consciously constructing and documenting this recital in a manner that was guided by the research framework, has allowed me to deeply explore skills, knowledge, and insights about my craft, my art, and its role in my self-story.

Summary: Recital findings

Writing up the processes and outcomes of the recital method provided me an opportunity to reflect more deeply on processes that have grown into habits over the decades. The embedded knowledge that has been the subject of reflections includes my creative methods, which were guided by the research framework. These methods were an examination of the function of songs as vehicles for shared immersion; an exploration of tension and resolution in the story telling; and a layering of production decisions, including arrangements and personnel, to construct the world of the performance. These production decisions were elements in creating one greater whole, constituted finally through the experience of the audience members.

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Reflection on the performance evoked insights about the process of becoming immersed in performance, the role of spontaneity in eliciting the trust of the audience, how the arousal of performance impacts my persona, and how the recital impacted significant others. Viewing and sharing the video documentation evoked several insights, including how the impact of bodily processes that relate to arousal can be both beneficial and unmanageable, how redundant habits of self-deprecation continue to be counter-productive, and how my peers, other singing performers, understand my performance goals and methods.

Reflecting on the processes of creation and performance evoked many positive insights that support a stronger understanding of my performance practice, and a sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose—the characteristics of psychological well-being. But the process also threw light onto less positive aspects of my behaviour that may call for changes in the way I prepare for performance. On the basis of this foundation of deeper awareness and understanding, I feel I am able to reflect more deeply on the value of what I offer my community through my performance practice. How these findings relate to the other two methods, and to the main research question and sub-questions, is considered in Chapter 7.

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CHAPTER 5: THE SURVEY METHOD AND RESULTS

In this chapter I describe the method, analysis, and results of ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’, an online survey that enabled me to gather singers’ self-reflections. I decided to use an online survey method to facilitate comparison between the collected data. The design applied the research framework of seven categories of underlying processes to the task of evoking insights through guided self-reflection. The survey questions are presented in Appendix 1. The survey was offered to singers who perform in diverse musical styles.

In designing the survey, I focused on evoking participant insights about functional aspects of performance by drawing attention to underlying processes. The design was developed through draft iterations, including a pilot video interview and a group workshop. These were important processes in the development of the research framework. The 21 questions for ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’ survey were generated by cross-referencing the final framework of seven underlying categories to a three-stage schema for the development of the psychological self as actor, agent, and author. This is elaborated by McAdams (2013):

The psychological self begins life as a social actor, construed in terms of performance traits and social roles. By the end of childhood, the self has become a motivated agent, too, as personal goals, motives, values, and envisioned projects for the future become central features of how the I conceives of the Me. A third layer of selfhood begins to form in the adolescent and emerging adulthood years, when the self as autobiographical author aims to construct a story of the Me, to provide adult life with broad purpose and a dynamic sense of temporal continuity (p. 272).

These three facets of self co-exist in our adult selves as three different ways that the ‘I’ encounters the ‘Me’. They were adapted to the research design as 1) the actor’s experiences, 2) the agent’s beliefs, and 3) the author’s understandings of the self. The survey was designed to apply that self-knowledge to the underlying processes. Table 6 is the final draft of survey questions on the participants’ experiences, beliefs, and understandings across the seven categories of underlying processes.

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evaluation of six questions. The preliminary questions gathered data on age and gender, experience, training, and performance style. Question 10 asked participants, “How positive do you feel about your expertise and knowledge of performance?” This question was intended to set a baseline for the participant’s self-assessment prior to the main section of the survey. The aforementioned 21 survey questions followed (see Table 6). The final section of six questions requested participants to evaluate the usefulness of the framework and the survey. Question 35 was a repeated statement of Question 10 and asked participants to reflect again on their level of positivity. This duplicate question sought to gauge whether the experience of completing the 21 questions would have any effect on the participants’ self- assessment, and could provide evidence for the impact of this process of guided self- reflection.

PARTICIPANTS

The survey was created in 2018 using Survey Monkey, an online platform that facilitates the design of surveys and the collection of data. Convenience sampling methods were used to recruit a purposeful selection of singers of diverse practices in order to understand the central phenomena (Cresswell, 2014). The survey was distributed to singers through my informal professional networks in jazz, folk, and contemporary performance practice. It was also promoted at the doctoral recital and on social media platforms online. Through involvement in the 2018 edition of ‘Women in Voice’, I was able to invite young musical theatre performers to take the survey. In order to better balance the sample with regard to singing style, a second round of email-based recruitment in mid-2019 targeted classically trained singers and teachers identified through a search of classical music training institutions and in collaboration with my co-supervisor, Associate Professor Irene Bartlett.

In total, 70 singers attempted parts of the survey, with 33 singers completing the full survey. It is possible that 37 singers did not finish the survey because of the challenge presented by the length of the survey and because of the nature of the content: asking singers to reflect about processes that occur implicitly, and beneath the level of awareness. Given the scaffolded nature of the survey design, only the completed surveys (n=33) were analysed in the results. Of these, 63% of the participants identified as female, and 60% were over 46 years of age (see Figure 8). Many participants were very experienced performers with 60%

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3) O—observations: how positive and negative function are produced or relate to each other; and 4) U— unsure: of the subject or the question.

In the results, the participants were grouped according to Style. My intention was to be able to identify any strong trends that might be associated with performance cultures. Style refers to their main practice area: classical and musical theatre (C&MT), roots and folk (R&F), jazz, alternative (Alt), or pop & rock (P&R).

Thematic coding was used to categorise the data in relation to the main research question: How can reflection on the underlying processes of performance evoke useful and healthy insights from singers? The process of coding took place in Excel spreadsheets, where the participant responses were analysed for units of content, including concepts, descriptions of phenomena, and observations. The identification of these units was based on the researcher’s knowledge of the phenomena. These data were then carried across to individual columns under labels and these values were counted to show the prevalence of the content. Where two responses held similar content, they would be counted under the same label. Even where terms were not identical, common themes were coded by the researcher. For example, the first of the main survey questions, Q11 (cognitive processes), asked, “In what ways does your performance state feel different from everyday awareness?” This produced seven columns labelled with positive concepts and phenomena, four with negative phenomena, and two columns for observations about these phenomena. The first three columns with positive labels were ‘Focused’ (13 reports), ‘Heightened awareness’ (13 reports) and ‘Altered self- awareness’ (12 reports). For example, Participant 24 (P24) wrote, “There is a concentrated consciousness that is simultaneously myopic and boundary blurring”. This was coded as ‘Focused’ and ‘Altered self-awareness’. Some questions evoked a wide range of unique concepts. This was then reflected with regard to the spread in the coding. Where themes were common to many, the result was a narrower spread, and where themes were more individual or unique, the result was a wider spread. Altogether the responses produced 1796 coded units of content. Because these data were thematically coded then statistically analysed, the survey analysis can be characterised as a quantitative approach to a substantial set of qualitative data (John & Vicki, 2017).

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Inter-rating

Inter-rater reliability was determined by Associate Professor Irene Bartlett through comparison of classifications within the coding of main themes identified through analysis of data collected from the survey. Clarification was called for three categories of labels and the interchange of various descriptors. The rater’s major questions arose around clarity of labels such as ‘positive’, ‘negative’ and ‘reflective’. For example, the rater asked whether ‘reflective’ was indicative of “states over and above a mere statement of content”, and whether this was “a characteristic of particular participants”, “common to all” or “a variation across the data set”. In response, I reviewed the use of these labels and we agreed on my use of Positive, Negative, Observations, and Unclear. The rater also questioned the varied application of the descriptors, ‘mixed states’ and ‘mixed feelings’. All queries raised by the rater were discussed and resolved. Discussion between us resulted in consensus for all items where differences had previously occurred, resulting in an inter-rater reliability of 100% (0.1).

OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS

In my survey analysis, I considered patterns and correlations that emerged from a numerical analysis of the coded results. Where substantial trends appeared in the numbers, such as a large proportion of positive or negative coded data, I discuss these in the overview of the findings that follows. In this analysis I also discuss trends that are observable in the data, (a) when they are organised under the seven categories of underlying processes (CoUP) identified in the research framework, and (b) when they are grouped under the three areas of self-awareness; namely, experiences, beliefs, and understandings.

Findings with regard to the CoUP

The results of the survey (questions 11 to 31) are considered in this section, organised under the seven CoUP. (See Table 7). In these seven blocks, the numerical data is the total of units of coded content thematically derived from the responses to the three questions on (a) experiences, (b) beliefs, and (c) understandings. These calculations were made in order to observe any strong numerical trends that might indicate common ground among the participants’ responses. As a guide to the table, I now explain the numbers in the first block, which presents the coded content relating to cognitive processes, compiling the answers to

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Q11, Q18 and Q25, as though reading the survey questions in Table 6 (above) left to right on the horizontal axis.

Reading down in the first block, row by row, in Table 7 (below), numbers are reported across the rows for each style in columns under the labels of P (Positive), N (Negative), O (Observation), and U (Unsure). Total numbers for each style row are reported in the right-hand ‘TOTAL’ column. The totals for the columns are P=175, N=24, O=40 and U=7. The total number of all coded content is 246. The numbers in the row beneath these totals show the spread in the thematic labels. For example, the total of O (observations) was 40, in a spread of 16 thematic labels. Beneath this row sit two percentages, which relate to comparisons between data. The one on the left (directly under the column N) shows the percentage of N (negative content) compared to P (positive content) which, in this block, is N24:P175 or 14%. The percentage on the right (directly under the column O) shows the spread of O compared to the total of O, which in this block is 16:40 or 40%.

Table 7: Survey results by category of underlying processes (n=33)

With respect to Table 7 the analysis found that the strongest trends were observable with regard to:

• The volumes of coded content; • The ratio of negative to positive coded content; and, 76

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• The spread of themes in the labels (the similarity or dissimilarity among responses).

When participants’ responses are quoted, they are identified by number, for example, P1, P2, or P3.

Key findings from data analysis

Questions regarding cognitive processes

The responses to the three questions about cognitive processes (Q11, Q18, and Q25) resulted in a low combined rating of negative to positive content with a ratio of 24N:175P or 14%. A relatively high number of observations were made on a narrow spread of thematic labels (40 observations coded under 16 thematic labels). Within these 40 observations nine responses reflected a common theme of awareness unlike the everyday. For example P7 said, “keen attention to that meaning, the intimate thoughts and the carrying of those”, P30 said, “everything is magnified, emotions and physical feelings” and P17 said that if everyday feelings obtrude, then “I‘m not creating an effective performance”. A number of other participants also reported states comparable to flow; for example, P13 said, “I am just a conduit for something larger that is happening”, and P19 gave this evocative image: “it feels like I have pulled an experience apart and threaded it back together again with a better understanding”.

Questions regarding bodily processes

The responses to the three questions on bodily processes (Q12, Q19, and Q26) presented the greatest variation compared to all other data. Questions that relate to this CoUP had the smallest gap between negative and positive content (84N:112P or 75%) containing the largest amount of negative content described in all three areas of self-awareness and across all styles. In their responses, participants reported phenomena such as, shaking and tingling, shortness of breath and a dry mouth, a racing heart and muscle tension, sweating and numbness, nausea and vomiting, and feelings of mental and physical dissociation. Q12, Q19, and Q26 produced 50 observations across a wide spread of 23 thematic labels that include processes that are automatic, chemical, and trait-based; states of awareness and absorption, mood, anxiety and stress; and the experience of identity. This cluster of content appears to be one of the most striking findings from this research, both in terms of the volume of negative content, and in terms of the diversity among the phenomena described. It also raises the question of what it is 77

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that motivates performers to persist in the face of experiences that sometimes represent acute discomfort. A more detailed analysis of responses to these three questions follows in the next section.

Questions regarding emotional responses

The second highest ratio of negative to positive content occurred in responses to questions about emotional processes (Q13, Q20, and Q27) with a ratio of 54N:159P or 34%. The 54 units of negative content focused on feelings of being constrained, inauthentic, distracted, frightened, or disconnected. These questions elicited a large number of observations (40). Participants observed distinctions between the performer’s emotions, their experience of emotions, the emotion in the song, and the nature of the emotions that they prefer to explore. Observations were made about the nuanced functions of emotion in context—as the performer harnesses emotion to serve the role of communication and storytelling; as the audience’s emotions are brought to the surface; and as essential connections are made within the performer, and among the performer, co-performers, and audiences.

Questions regarding mental processes

The questions on mental processes explored participants’ experience of mental states (Q14), the role of imagination (Q21), and their evolving vision of performance (Q28). There were no responses to these questions that were unsure. The questions also elicited the lowest number of units overall of content in relation to any CoUP (220). In the area of experience, many described unusual states and processes, such as looking at your own thoughts in “a rear vision mirror, always notice but they are fleeting” (P15). Among negative responses in the area of beliefs, four participants saw imagination as unnecessary or even a risk for the performer in that it may enhance performance, yet “being in the moment is key” (P26). In response to Q28, which asked participants to reflect on the evolution of their vision of performance, all reported some level of reappraisal of their priorities and methods over time:

Singing for me now is about others, not me. This was not the case when I was younger. I think we could do a lot more to help younger singers understand this, as it would avoid a lot of comparison, anxiety, and feelings of “less than”. (P6)

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A comparatively low number of observations were made (27) across a wide spread (18) which generated the highest ratio overall between the spread of O compared to O, at 18:27 or 67%. Despite the highly individual nature of the content described, this CoUP produced the least impression of ambivalence in the responses overall.

Questions regarding sense of self

Responses to questions on sense of self presented the lowest ratio of negative compared to positive content. The three questions asked participants to reflect on their experience of the performer’s role (Q15), why they chose the role (Q22), and how they would describe the role (Q29). The level of negative content was among the lowest (26) while positive content was the highest across all categories (208), producing a ratio of 26N:208P or 13%. These questions also produced great diversity of content, with the widest spread in the thematic coding of positive content labels overall (51). Participants’ observations encompassed motivations that included self-exploration and the wish to be expressive musically, artistically, emotionally, or spiritually; and the desire to celebrate, sharing joy and delight. Almost all the participants talked about the purpose of their role as facilitating, guiding, or serving the performance, working positively in reciprocal relationships, and creating connection with others on and off stage through storytelling and the power of music. Around one third also expressed a strong sense of pride in their practice of craft. A variety of what might be thought of as mystical concepts were reported: the sense of being a vessel, being a guide or a shaman, sharing hope, and demonstrating something essential and uplifting about human experience through being open and vulnerable.

Questions regarding social processes

Questions on social processes asked participants how performance connects them with others (Q16), in what ways it defines them to others (Q23), and how being a performer shapes their social world (Q30). The most striking variation in the data is that these questions produced the lowest ratio overall of thematic spread of observations compared to the number of observations, at 6:37 or 16%. Three of the six thematic labels reflected on the nature of performance—that it is contextual, that it is about connection, and that connection is reciprocal. Two others reflected on the intersection of performance with other life roles—as a teacher, or just in everyday contexts—and the importance of life experience to the performer. The sixth thematic label raised doubt about who the participant would be without 79

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performance. This narrow range of themes in the observations was accompanied by the highest level of unsure responses, with 14 units of content reporting that being a performer did not define the participants to others (P6), that they were not sure whether being a performer defined them to others (P3), or that performance did not shape their social world (P5).

Questions regarding cultural processes

Questions about cultural processes (Q17, Q24, and Q31) garnered the highest volume of coded content overall (299). In particular, the 10 participants in the roots and folk style subgroup provided 108 units of content, producing the highest overall average across the survey of 10.8 units of labelled content per participant in response to the three questions in this area. The jazz and alternative styles groups also averaged 10 or more units of coded content in their responses. Participants provided descriptions of their practices, their views on their practices (negative, positive, and analytical), and their aspirations for future performances.

Summary of trends by the CoUP

In summary, trends identified in the collected data and organised according to the seven CoUP are:

• Common features in participants’ descriptions of heightened performance states; • Wide ranging, detailed reports of uncomfortable bodily states; • Complex, sometimes uncertain, relationships to emotion in the context of performance; • Expressions of clarity and agency about mental processes in performance; • Strong sense of values and motivations supporting sense of self; • Common experiences and attitudes towards the performer’s role in social settings; and, • Many reflections on career opportunities, milestones, and artistic stances.

These themes of mental clarity, strong values, and social and cultural assurance suggest that, although the 33 singers’ practices are diverse in their training, style, professional status and formats, because 60% of the group are over the age of 45 and have more than 25 years of

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performance experience, their collective self-knowledge and sense of agency is strong. In the next section, I describe numerical trends that emerged when the data was considered across the three areas of self-awareness: experiences, beliefs, and understandings.

Findings with regard to the three areas of self-awareness

Table 8 shows the numbers of labelled units of content (N, P, O, and U) when compared to total units of content. These are shown within three blocks, representing the three areas of self-awareness: experiences, beliefs, and understandings. A fourth block shows the combined totals. The columns list the question number, the CoUP, the column for total units of content described, and the ratios expressed as numbers and percentages under the labels of N, P, O, and U. The most significantly high and low variations are described next.

Experiences

The highest number of units of thematically coded content in the area of experiences (117) were in response to Q16 (social processes) which asked, “In what ways does performance connect you to others?” In response, 79.49% of the coded content was positive and 17.95% offered observations, leaving a very small percentage of negative content (2.56%) and no unsure responses. This was one of the most positive responses to the survey questions overall. The highest ratio of observations in the area of experience was generated from responses to Q13 (emotional processes): “What role do your emotions play in your performance?” The high number of observations (21 from 92 total units of coded content) sat in a narrow spread of themes that refer to the subtle workings of emotion in the context of performance. Participants suggested that performance was not about the performer or their emotions, but rather was focused on wider meanings such as a successful outcome with emotion operating at a critical distance. The most dramatic trend in the area of experiences related to Q12 (bodily processes). This is the only question (of the 21 questions in the survey) that elicited more negative than positive content. It asked, “In what ways does your body respond to performance?” Not only was the percentage of positive content the lowest (24.75%) but the negative content presented the highest percentage overall (53.47%) by a margin of nearly 30%. In addition, the 25 units of positive content were coded to a narrow spread of six themes: excitement, energy, heightened states, relaxation, synchronisation to the music, and freedom from physical symptoms. In comparison, negatively themed content (54 units of coded content) was reported at twice the volume of the positive and more than twice 81

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Beliefs

The highest number of units of coded content in the area of beliefs (118) were in response to Q24 (cultural processes), “In what ways do you engage with tradition and/or experimentation in performance?” Combining the positive content (77.12%) and the observations (17.8%) left just over 5% of the content as negative or unsure. Very high percentages of positive content were enhanced by low percentages of negative content in response to both Q21 (mental processes) and Q18 (cognitive processes). The design of Q18 potentially elicited this trend by asking, “What practices have a positive influence on your perceptions in performance?” But Q21 (mental processes) which asked, “How important is it for performers to draw on imagination?” managed to elicit 73 units of positive content in a narrow spread of 17 coded themes. This suggests a high level of agreement in the cohort on the important role that imagination plays, described as supporting preparation and focus, inspiration and creativity, flexibility, acting, storytelling, and communication. Notably, Q19 (bodily processes) again produced a very low percentage of positive content and a high percentage of negative content.

Understandings

The highest number of units of content coded in the area of understandings (90) were in response to Q31 (cultural processes) which asked, “What performance milestones have you reached and what is your direction from here?” This elicited a very high percentage of positive content (82.22%), with a low percentage of observations (5.56%). The outstanding positive trend in this area was in response to Q29 (sense of self) which asked, “How would you describe the role of a performer in the performance?” This question elicited the highest percentage of positive content of any question in the survey (90.79%), accompanied by an extremely low percentage of negative content (2.63%) and a low percentage of observations (6.58%). The least positive percentage in this area resulted from Q25 (cognitive processes) which asked, “How do you interpret the effects of performance on your perceptions?” Cognitive processes, which operate beneath the level of awareness, are the least available to our awareness (Kahneman, 2011). The embedded nature of cognition was a challenge when designing the questions, and may have evoked the low percentage of positive content (50%), the high percentage of observations (20.69%), and reports that the participants were unsure about the question or its subject (10.20%). Some tension is evident in participant observations

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which reflect on performance, described as “a roller coaster” (P26) that cannot be controlled, that requires reflection on the self, on what is real, on how to learn and adapt to the audience, how to meet performance standards, and how to manage post-performance states. Overall, across the 21 questions, the lowest number of units of coded content (49) were provided in answer to Q30 (social processes), “How does your performance practice shape your social world?” Among the responses was a high percentage of responses that were unsure (10.2%), a relatively low percentage of positive content (61.22%), and a high percentage of negative content (26.53%). Overall, the area of understandings garnered the smallest number of units of content (466). This may suggest that the question design in this area was less effective in eliciting reflections, especially considering the higher ratio of responses that stated the participant was unsure (4.29%). It may also suggest that this area was generally less impactful for the participants, given that it elicited the lowest ratio of negative content (11.37%).

Combined

In the bottom row of data (Total) the highest number of units of content overall (299) came from the CoUP of cultural processes. This total draws from the three questions that produced varied ratings of positive, negative, and observational content. As discussed in the overview of the CoUP of cultural processes, both Q24 (on engagement with tradition/experimentation) and Q31 (on professional milestones) elicited a high number of positive responses. In contrast, Q17 (experiences) asked about participants’ satisfaction with their opportunities to perform, eliciting the most ambivalent response across all questions.

Responses to the two questions that produced the strongest sense of ambivalence are worthy of further analysis. Q17 (cultural processes) asked, “To what degree are you satisfied with the performance opportunities you have?” Only five out of the 33 participants gave an unconditionally positive answer. Many said they would be pleased to have more opportunities but were “realistic”. There were a series of remarks about self-reliance; for example, “To a greater degree I feel that it is now up to me to create performance opportunities for myself rather than have them offered” (P10). There were also reflections on how commercial factors shape practice: “I have 7 different band configurations … so I am more marketable and therefore have several performance opportunities” (P16), and “I would like more performance opportunities where I can be vulnerable, tell my story and express

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myself without necessarily being ‘entertaining‘” (P17). Some felt battered by commercial factors, because “… the hustling takes me away from the music” (P20), so that “If it wasn‘t for the love of music, performance and musical relationships, I wouldn‘t do it” (P33). Others described insuperable barriers: “… the opera company in QLD didn‘t offer auditions for 10 years—my performing days are over” (P2), “I find myself getting frustrated with the industry for not even giving me the chance to show myself” (P12), and “Currently performing and I am on a break and seeing other people” (P25). Along with the many negative bodily experiences of performance noted in Q12, the shortage of opportunity appears to be the most difficult aspect of performance for many of the participants to manage.

Q23 (social processes) also elicited a very low percentage of positive content (50.55%) accompanied by high percentages of negative content (23.08%), observations (16.48%), and responses that were unclear (9.89%). The question “In what ways does performance define who you are to others?” elicited thoughtful reflections on complex issues. One participant summed it up saying, “Performance carries a load of … cultural and social assumptions which can be hard to navigate” (P29). Three singers reported feeling disconnected due to being “idealised” (P30), considering they are overestimated in terms of confidence (P24), and observing that others see them as “alien” (P18). There were also singers who felt judged by their peers for falling short in skill or dedication. Being a performer was a central identity for four participants who wrote they would not know who they were without performing (P12), were reluctant to surrender the identity (P6), feared they would be nothing without it (P19), and felt that their other abilities meant nothing in comparison (P31). For one participant, it was seen as a past, false identity (P4) while for another it was seen as a manifestation of a “true self” (P9). There was also a range of reflective observations about the nature of this identity, one participant writing that strength is implicated in the identity (P8), and another reflecting that the performer’s identity had lost status over time (P16). Two participants were pragmatic, writing that they were initially known by others through media, that they had some control over social media mechanisms, and that they benefited from being well-known.

Summary of numerical trends

A summary of the strongest numerical trends observed in the thematic coding of results is offered here, organised in relation to the seven CoUP.

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Cognitive processes Participants have practical methods by which they address the common challenge of managing concentration and focus (Q18) but are generally less clear as to how performance impacts on cognitive processes (Q25).

Bodily processes Participants are simultaneously aware of the unpleasant impacts that performance has on bodily processes (Q12) and of the general benefits of bodily awareness (Q19).

Emotional processes Participants showed they are both pragmatic and subtle in relation to how emotion is experienced and communicated in performance (Q13).

Mental processes Participants showed strong, shared views on the role of imagination in effective performance (Q21).

Sense of self Participants had strong views on the value and purpose of the performer’s role (Q29).

Social processes Participants were confident about their connections to others through performance (Q16), reflective on how the performer identity operates for them as individuals (Q23), and critical about how the role of the performer plays out in their social world (Q30).

Cultural processes Participants showed themselves to be assured about the nature of their output (Q24) and positive about their long-term progress (Q31); yet in many cases they were frustrated by the current opportunities available (Q17).

Overall, these trends may reflect embedded characteristics of singing performance in the context of these participants’ practices, which may enhance a sense of individual agency within the boundaries of performance practice, while presenting challenges in accessing satisfactory opportunities and negotiating the social role of the performer.

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Evaluation

The six final questions (Q32 to Q37) asked participants to evaluate their experience of engaging with the survey.

Q32 focused on the usefulness of the survey, asking, “How well did the 21 questions assist you to focus your reflections on performance?” In their responses, 25 (75%) of the participants reported that the questions had assisted them quite well (33%) or very well (42%). The remaining eight (24%) reported that the questions had helped either a little (6%) or somewhat (18%). Of the 14 participants who left comments, four remarked that the questions had been vague or confusing, while two commented that the questions were great, being “easy to answer” (P6), and helpful for clarifying thought (P25). The other eight welcomed the opportunity the questions had provided, either to reflect overall (P11, P15, P18), to think about the complexity, inner tension, or nuance of performance (P7, P29, P33), to consider the challenges that they encountered putting experience into words (P30), or to reappraise the role of performance in their life (P31).

Q33 sought responses on whether the survey had been pleasant for participants: “Did you enjoy the time you spent reflecting on your experiences, beliefs and understandings of performance?” In their responses, 24 participants (72%) reported that they had enjoyed it quite a lot (45%) or had found it very enjoyable (27%), while nine (27%) said it had been only a little enjoyable (9%) or somewhat enjoyable (18%). Out of the nine comments on this question, five reflected on the benefits of facing personal truths (P25), thinking in depth (31), transcending the distractions of emotion (P30), and having a big picture perspective (P6, P21). Three reported that the survey had helped them to clarify and put into words their reflections (P17, P33) on their life’s work (P18), and one hoped for a live conversation in the future (P7).

The participants were relatively ambivalent about the use of the research framework. Q34 asked, “How relevant or useful did you find it to consider the seven categories of underlying processes?” In response, 19 participants (57.6%) said it had been quite useful (42.4%) or very useful (15.2%) with the remaining 14 (42.4%) reporting it as somewhat useful (24.2%), a little useful (6.1%), or not useful at all (12.1%). Among the 11 comments provided in response to this question, four were positive that the categories were comprehensive (P6),

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four (12%) said that they had not, and two (6%) reported that they were unsure. Positive comments included an increase in awareness of the nature of performance as collaborative (P21, P31), the pleasure of feeling connected to the moment of performance (P33), and recognition of the communication involved in performance (P17). Other participants reported the process as one of refocusing current knowledge (P27) or challenging old assumptions about the role of the performer (P26). Some encountered mixed feelings, such as the ‘irony’ of noticing their reticence to express confidence (P7), and another gained unexpected insights that “were both melancholic and sweet” (P25).

Finally, Q37 asked “Would you recommend this process of guided self-reflection to other performers?” In response, 30 participants (91%) said that they would. One participant said no and two said they were unsure. Four commented that the survey would be of use in performance practice training by providing a guide for stocktake due to the multiple angles of enquiry (P14, P18), a guide that was usable outside formal learning (P6), and particularly if it were followed up with live conversations for multimodal learning (P7). Two said they would recommend it if others were open to it (P25), or in order to liberate others (P33). One participant had constructive additions around physical, mental, and financial well-being, as well as life-style issues of drug use, the performer’s status in society, performer solidarity, and mutual support (P30).

Summary of the evaluation

Overall the evaluation showed that:

Q32 75% of participants were quite or very positive about the usefulness of the survey and most comments focused on the benefits of reflection, although a number reported a level of confusion about the questions;

Q33 72% found the survey enjoyable, and all their comments were positive about the process of reflection;

Q34 57% said the framework was quite or very useful, offering comments that reflected on how the framework could be used, or augmented; however, a number felt they needed to reflect further on it due to its complexity;

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Q35 Post-survey, 45% of participants reappraised their perspective regarding their confidence in performance skills, with the effect overall of consolidating their views towards the centre of the scale;

Q36 82% reported encountering fresh insights, commenting on deepened understandings and nuanced perspectives; and

Q37 Although not all the questions were clear, and some of the reflections were ambivalent or challenging, 91% of participants reported that they would recommend this survey to others as a method for guided self-reflection on performance practice.

This study was motivated by a goal to create a body of data that reflected on performance from the point of view of singers. The survey provided a large and detailed body of such data. This analysis has focused on numerical trends in the thematically coded data in order to see patterns and correlations. Looked at individually, however, the survey responses could also be analysed as 33 case studies. In this way, the survey design potentially has both individual and collective applications for the future. In the next chapter, I describe the third application of the research framework, the methods and results of the three interviews with singing teachers.

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CHAPTER 6: THE INTERVIEW METHOD AND RESULTS

This is the third of three chapters that describe and analyse the research methods and results. In Chapter 4, I shared insights that were evoked through my autoethnographic recital performance, ‘The Singer’s Anatomy’. In Chapter 5, I presented an analysis of the thematically coded results of ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’ online survey. In this chapter I compare the self-reflections of three singing teachers of diverse performance styles at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University (QCGU). The first two methods evoked singers’ self-reflections. This third method provides a complimentary perspective by eliciting teacher insights on supporting trainee performers to develop skills and knowledge across the seven categories of underlying processes.

BACKGROUND

The idea for this method emerged from a conference presentation—Introducing ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’: a tool for reflection on the underlying processes of performance—that was included in the program of Eurovox 2018 at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague (EVTA, 2019). During other presentations at the same conference, I observed that the teacher delegates were extremely interested in positive psychological approaches to performance. Therefore, I decided to adapt the research framework by developing questions for teachers’ guided self-reflections on their pedagogical practices. Following the conference, I continued to experiment with this approach by conducting an interview with the expert singing teacher with whom I am most familiar, Associate Professor Irene Bartlett. Dr Bartlett is my doctoral co-supervisor. She was my Masters of Music Research co-supervisor in 2015 and, 23 years ago, my teacher for the Jazz Voice major during my Bachelor of Music studies. To add rigour to this current investigation, I decided to interview two other teachers at QCGU to compare how three expert singing teachers support the development of students’ performance skills and knowledge. The questions that guided the interviews are listed in Table 11.

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three generations, with Joel being the youngest and Dr Bartlett the most senior. The interviewees were given an opportunity to read and correct the transcriptions, and to comment on material in this exegesis about their practice. The interviewees are referred to here by their first names. Short biographies are provided in Appendix 3.

THE INTERVIEW RESULTS

The interview results offer a third data set using the framework of seven categories of underlying processes. In these results the responses have been grouped under those seven processes, but it is noted that the three teachers often address issues in ways that are holistic; for instance, cognitive processes sometimes overlap with sense of self, or bodily processes interrelate with emotion.

Cognitive processes

The interview questions on cognitive processes targeted teaching techniques that support students to embed useful and healthy habits of focus, and to challenge unhelpful assumptions. Through three different lenses, Irene, Shelli, and Joel talked about the importance of supporting their students’ sense of agency in the studio as a means of supporting the development of a positive approach to performance. Shelli described conversations with students during which she encouraged them to set their own standards of success, and to manage the fear of failure so that, “… they should always go in with a goal for themselves, rather than completely being reliant on an audience’s reaction”. Irene offered her views about the importance of enjoyment with her students, with a particular focus on the inherent generosity of performance: “… if you’re sharing it with one person or a thousand people, you’re actually adding to their lives. You’re giving them joy”. Irene differentiated between practise (the verb) as being the foundation of healthy habits developed in the studio, and practice (the noun) in relation to the experiential learning that happens ‘in performance’ (that is, ‘on stage’). Irene described how familiar routines in both practise and practice serve to moderate stressed or emotional states that interfere with good concentration, by providing consistency: “… making sure that people know what to expect in the space, and secondly making sure they know what to expect in terms of knowing the way this session is going to run”.

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Having researched performance anxiety, Joel described engaging imagination to simulate exposure to negative stimuli. He talked about students developing skills in self-awareness that they can transfer from the studio to performance environments: “I guess for me the answer is I give them strategies so that they can practice it consciously, so then it becomes unconscious in the same way that you would do that for a singing technique”. Joel described offering students a four-stage learning model for the evolution of skills:

When you‘re unconsciously incompetent about something first, you don‘t even know that you don‘t know it and then you‘re consciously incompetent. You know that you can‘t, and then you‘re consciously competent. You can do it, but only when you think about it and then you‘re unconsciously competent, you can do it and you don‘t even think about doing it anymore.

He suggested that while this represents a simplification of processes that may be embedded through either nature or nurture, this model is effective in reassuring students about their potential to progress in skills that can be categorised as the “not-thought-about-directly stuff”.

Bodily processes

The one question formulated about bodily processes concerned the overarching issue of how students balance technical discipline and expressive freedom. All three interviewees shared their methods for, and observations about, students’ development of greater awareness of their bodily processes, in particular about managing states of arousal. Shelli talked about fight-and-flight responses, “All humans experience it. And we’re [performers] voluntarily putting ourselves into a position where we’re going to work either with or against that”. She argued that for bodily processes, ‘knowledge is power’”. Drawing on her own experience, she explained:

My favourite thing to acknowledge is that the central tendon that the diaphragm is connected to … [is] your heart. So, if your heart rate, if your pulse is fast, because you’re feeling nervous, then of course your breathing’s going to be feeling a bit odd. For me, an awareness of that helps me settle my own breath.

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Shelli described processes for bringing the student’s awareness to bodily function in order to add to their choices. These included a process for matching the energetic requirements of a musical score to emotions reflective of their underlying level of arousal, so that students were able to “make the emotion fit the technical requirements”. She also described a flexible self- audit mechanism, using four channels to focus on performance strengths before addressing weaknesses:

I sometimes talk about having a four-track recording studio or something … track 1 is your breathing and alignment. Track 2 is a healthy free [sound] … or vowels. Track 3 is the expression of what you’re talking about and track 4 might be your sense of ensemble with whoever’s on stage for example. So … if you’re feeling a bit nervous, or you’re feeling the stress of performance, just start by opening whichever channel you feel more comfortable with. So, if that’s the expressive one, then that’s where you start … eventually by the end of the piece you want to have all your channels open. But don’t set yourself the task of having to achieve it all in the first phrase.

Shelli reported that her goal was to demystify the performance state by explaining to her students, “… this is what’s happening to you when you’re nervous, and this is why. So, here are some ways you can manage it”.

Joel described how the connections between mind and body enable thoughts and feelings to either spiral up or down. He focused on supporting students to learn skills “… to help their mind tell their body things in a good way, and their body to tell their mind things in a good way to regulate adrenaline and to regulate thought”. In his view, optimal arousal is an individual phenomenon, and a teacher’s role is to help students to design individual strategies to support positive performance states. His approach was to ask students to “… imagine a good performance, and then imagine how they feel before, how they feel during, and what that looks like, and what that feels like. And then we can work from there”. Among a number of techniques for regulating arousal, Joel pointed out that physical movement was good because “the adrenaline is being used in the way it was meant, which was to run away from the bear”. Joel also referred to techniques developed in sports performance research, such as taking an open, broad-chested ‘Superman’ pose that “helps regulate your adrenaline and 96

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regulate your thoughts a little more, and makes you feel and think more confidently, just because your body can override the brain”.

To achieve physical expressivity, musical theatre singing training has to balance different requirements from other styles. In Joel’s view, it requires the cultivation of a different internal dialogue from other styles. For instance, he talked about the use of fantasy to produce bodily expression as running a risk of creating an overly internal focus that can alienate audience attention. He considered musical theatre performance as more related to the craft of acting. He also reflected on the vulnerabilities of less developed and experienced performers who needed to overcome constriction and inhibition, or to manage their newly learned vocal techniques while fulfilling their primary task of acting: “we don‘t aim for perfection in that way [with regard to vocal technique], but certainly we try to make sure that the performance is far more about thinking of all of those emotional and story- and imagery-based things than anything else”. In such cases, he argued that the performer would be wise to understand their own limits and work diligently to first consolidate their technique before exploring expressive freedoms.

On the subject of achieving optimal arousal, Irene described modelling an optimistic approach to performance; supporting the downregulation of self-consciousness in her students by sharing her own ongoing, long-standing enjoyment in performance; and suggesting they also focus on feelings of pleasure and excitement. She also described advising her students to develop strategies to cope with high states of arousal:

Be excited. Be nervous. Don’t try to not be nervous, but have some tools for coping with your nerves. If that’s running around in circles, then run around in circles. But do that every time. Get a little bit of a routine going.

Unlike the other teachers, however, whose aim was to prepare singers for specific roles, Irene remarked that her task was to support individuality in students’ self-expression because this was a recognised goal in jazz and contemporary vocal performance. She shared the specific example of a student who unconsciously mimicked an admired artist/teacher, describing the processes by which she assisted the student to recognise these habitual gestures so as to gain the option to make a choice about it:

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I said, “I think what you’re doing is showing me the music”, which is what this other singer does. “You’re showing me every note that you’re singing, and maybe if you told the story? And I’m not going to tell you how to tell the story, you tell me your story”. I said, “It might work, it might not. Why don’t we have a go?”

The process evoked emotional responses from the student, and Irene described allowing the tears to subside, waiting until the singer was able to refocus and make conscious changes to unconscious behaviours. When asked if she used metaphors to help students evoke and manage embedded forms of expression, Irene reported that she preferred the ‘primal sound’ approach of connecting students’ sound to cries and sighs and other kinds of emotional non- verbal vocalisations through imagery rather than through metaphor.

Emotional processes

The questions about emotional processes focused on the teachers’ beliefs about the relationship of the voice to emotion, the methods that they engage with to support connectedness to emotion as a goal for student voice work, and the ethics of asking students to connect to emotion. The greatest contrasts between the teachers’ responses were in the category of emotional processes. Shelli was concerned that the important role of emotion in singing can become secondary to technique in classical singing. This contrasts with Joel’s view that the relationship of the voice to emotion is entirely and necessarily mediated by the craft of acting. Both perspectives are in contrast to Irene’s view that the ability of students to be personally vulnerable enriches their expressive freedom.

When asked about the relationship of the voice to emotional communication, Shelli said, “That is what the voice is. There’s no way of separating that. Any music is communication, but singing is the most intimate form of communication, I believe, because of the text as well”. Shelli also reflected on the potential risk that emotional communication can be set aside in classical singing because of the extraordinary vocal demands of the style. She described prompting students to think about the composer’s intentions, about integrating expressive intentions with the quality of the breath supporting phrasing, mixing these aspects with the emotional content of the performance. She also stated that primal sound was a reliable, accessible anchor for expression, and she sought to embed students’ insights into the meaning, interpretation, and context of the sung material because she wanted them “to have 98

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some kind of freedom of expression, even within a style that’s quite dictated in terms of that”.

Shelli was of the view that technique was acquired through experience rather than in the studio:

I don’t think you can teach technique. I think you can teach function, so, elements of technique in isolation. It’s kind of like doing your soccer drill. Then you have to play the game and you have to play it with heart. And so, I don’t think you can ever have a technical lesson for example. I would never give a technical lesson.

When teaching how to connect performance to emotional expression, therefore, Shelli described using spoken expression of texts, including translations of texts into English, with the goal of using a current, personal, conversational style. She observed that this approach elided with acting techniques. Shelli has translated this method into her studio practice, encouraging the more self-conscious students to connect sound to emotion through outsized gestures that are subsequently moderated in performance, leaving evocative body memory in their wake. Speaking about the ethics of working with students at the level of emotions, Shelli told how she came to understand and be cautious of the potential risks of some teaching methods, such as when teaching primal sound, particularly in the context of teaching people who are young and potentially vulnerable.

Joel was adamant that the phenomena of emotions in musical theatre singing were a by- product of the acting process: “… for us it‘s far less about thinking about an emotion and far more about thinking about a character‘s … journey”. He observed again that performance paradigms differ greatly between disciplines, and he pointed to differences in the way storytelling is approached, where contemporary styles focus more on the practice of self- expression through lyrics, rather than creating a believable rendition of a sung text as though it were being spoken. These distinctions were central to Joel’s views on this topic, even in his preference for talking about storytelling rather than the expression of emotion. However, terminology was able to be set aside when talking about specific effects, and he stated that the performer’s relationship with the communication of emotion was complex and nuanced,

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because “it‘s way more interesting to see someone try not to cry than just to see someone bawling their eyes out on stage”.

Reflecting on the relationship of emotion to the voice itself, Joel said, “… my understanding is that the voice is connected quite specifically to … part of our emotional regulation in the brain”. Joel described the processes of realisation of the performance by the musical theatre performer:

So, what happens is I‘m going to think what the character thinks and see what the character sees. All of my work on being connected mind, body, all of my work in being an actor with intelligence and good connection to my emotional system, I‘m going to be that. I‘m going to be that character in that moment through the lens of me. That causes specific emotional, and physical reactions in my body to help me tell that story and hopefully that also happens within my voice.

Joel also shared his views on the differences between performance goals and methods in contemporary, classical, and musical theatre styles, and how the required skills were not translatable across genres. When speaking about ethics and the sharing of emotion by students in the studio, Joel gave an example of the kinds of serious psychological distress that lies outside the ambit of the singing teacher, such as sexual abuse, but also said, “… at the same time it is our job to help facilitate that connection [to emotion]”. He talked about the young people who attended an institution like the Queensland Conservatorium, who in many cases came from relatively safe and comfortable circumstances, and he reflected on the challenges that may arise for these students in forming connections with performance materials and their own inner lives.

Irene made many points about emotion in singing and described many methods to support students to contact and manage emotion, including students with diverse capacities in this area. She talked about methods for liberating those who are emotionally unavailable, including distracting them with physical tasks, then capturing video or audio evidence of increased freedom in their expression in order to consciously challenge unconsciously embedded habits.

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… the ones who’ve already got it, I just leave them alone and basically just ask them to give me a bit more if I think they’re not connected … The ones who can’t, I do a lot of physical stuff with them. So, I’ll ask them to sit on a chair and sing that to me … I tell them, “If you need to, close your eyes” … I use props … If it’s really desperate I’ll get them to lie on the gym ball, roll around the floor with it, but still sing.

Irene also described a method for modelling expressive freedom, without direct mimicry, through a well-known conversational format for improvisation in jazz, ‘trading fours’. She suggested an approach to lyrics that drew out imaginary inner monologues/dialogues in a declamatory style, through which students’ singing became more animated and communicative. Considering the connections between emotions and the voice, and the nature of the voice as an ‘internal instrument’, Irene spoke about the deep underlying links between breath, body, and brain. She also reflected on how teachers interact with trainees in masterclasses. Irene is committed in her own practice to giving students a positive experience, having witnessed episodes when teachers have elicited tears and distress. This linked to my question of emotion and ethics:

It is not our job to be counsellors or psychologists. You find yourself in that situation a lot, because your students are entrusting you with … your voice is your spirit, your voice is your sound in the world, your voice is you. And so just by walking into a singing studio and giving that to a teacher, I mean, I find that a huge responsibility.

Through a practice of supporting students to overcome episodes of distress by focusing on technique, Irene was aware of having made her studio a safe space, where students felt it was alright to be vulnerable and, as a consequence, more expressive.

Mental processes

When discussing mental processes in the interviews, I asked about teaching roles and methods for helping students to mentally prepare for performance and to make creative choices. I also asked how students think about their audience. All three teachers have sought to support the development of student’s mental skills in the management of performance states. Irene talked about modelling professional behaviour, including detailed planning and

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accounting for contingencies. Shelli used strategies in the studio for supporting positivity in students facing performance, both in her interaction with them and through eliciting students’ self-reflections. Joel talked about students’ obligations being primarily to the production and co-workers, and not directly to the audience. All three felt that mentoring creativity was not the role of the singing teacher, as their primary responsibility was to support the student’s relationship with their instrument.

Irene spoke in detail about the centring influence of pre-performance checklists and routines. Her view of performance reflected the professionalism she had developed in more than fifty years as a freelance soloist. She sought to share important elements of professional comportment, including developing routines for checking equipment, being vocally prepared, and displaying an appropriate dress code and respectful manners: “It’s what a plumber does before he goes to fix your taps. He actually makes sure he’s got all the right tools, that they are clean and tidy”. She noted that professional poise also included the skills to adapt performances to match their settings and establish an appropriate relationship to the audience. A focus on communication also shaped Irene’s work in the studio around mental processes:

I’ll say, “Where are you? Who are you singing to? Are you singing to anyone? … you’ve got to have a reason for telling this story. You’ve got to have a reason for singing this melody. You know, “Why? Who am I singing to? Where am I when I’m singing this?” Because this is a pretty sterile room, so if you really want to dig into an emotion or a primal sound, put yourself into another space. You can do that by closing your eyes. We all have imagination. And I say to them, “You can do that on stage”.

Irene also talked about students using imagination when they needed to express ideas and feelings beyond the limits of their own experience, and she advised them to access narratives from public culture with appropriate emotional nuance to add expression to their singing.

Reflecting on students’ creative choices, Irene was clear that this was not the task of the singing teacher: “My job is to get people’s voices working, and make sure they’re efficient and healthy, and then they can express whatever they want with that”. However, because she has a lot of students who are singer songwriters, she has developed methods to support these aspects of their work in relation to singing performance: “I say to them, ‘It’s harder when you

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write your own songs … So, if you’re going to perform those on stage, you’ve got to be prepared to be honest … And as a singer-songwriter that’s what you need’”. In cases where the student’s relationship to their own songs is emotionally intense, or even distressing, Irene described counselling students to seek emotional distance, understanding the performer’s task to be that of an interpreter, and if that detachment cannot be achieved, then to hand the material to another performer. In thinking about who the audience is going to be, Irene advised her students to know their audience, research their venue, and have realistic expectations for each performance, whether the music is ancillary or central to the event. Irene defined performance as being about sharing—sharing through storytelling, sharing more than imagination, sharing of the self with an audience.

On the subject of supporting students in strategic planning, Shelli talked about giving her students warm up time in her studio prior to recitals, exams, or performances in order to build their confidence through a focus on realistic but positively framed feedback. She was guided by personal experience, having, in the past, appreciated the benefits of a kind word from a teacher or mentor for her own well-being. Shelli spoke about supporting students to reflect on strategies for achieving optimal arousal and a mindful state through pre-performance routines. She sought to balance these concerns, to support students effectively, but not to hover or be a ‘helicopter teacher’. Shelli spoke about supporting artistic agency and intrinsic motivation, including choosing material that they had an affinity with, and developing vocal versatility, which was not necessarily the norm in the ‘classical world’: “In terms of the way they use their voice, I’m really open to cross-genre singing. I actually think it’s really good for an artist”. Shelli’s own doctoral research is about whether cross-training is beneficial for classical singers: “I do really try hard to make them think it’s not all about opera, and if you don’t do that traditional pathway, it doesn’t mean you are a failure”. Once students have chosen their repertoire, another layer of affirming decisions becomes possible, with choices to be made about the emphases within text, dynamics, and phrasing. Shelli did not see any advantage in using mental processes to imagine audiences and performance conditions because “… there can be five people in the audience, or there can be 500 people and the same amount of nerves can appear”. Instead, she described how she counselled students to set aside worries about the judgement of critical observers and to focus instead on people they know and feel supported by:

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I focus more on, “What do you want to get out of the experience?”, “What do you want to say with this piece, or your voice, or this performance? Just do that. Who cares? You’ll know if they receive that or not”. And who cares about all the little eyebrow frowns. Who knows what they’re thinking about?

When asked about mental preparation for performance, Joel suggested the singing teacher had a limited role in the context of directors and acting teachers, who may set pre- performance routines for the students. The role of the singing teacher in this context was to help “translate some of their acting work into their vocal work and connecting those dots for them”. He also saw preparation as a matter of individual need that was primarily a matter of managing states of arousal and the practicalities of getting on stage. Joel highlighted the complex nature of the responsibilities that musical theatre performers have towards the performance ensemble, from external matters of physical blocking, choreography, and the safety of others, to being able to reproduce the internal states that deliver a consistent performance, and to connect to scenery, songs, and partners in dialogue: “In this style, performance quality hinges on being able to repeat performances with accuracy while staying connected to the moment”.

Reflecting on students making creative choices, Joel identified the need for musical theatre performers to find small ways to put their stamp on roles that were closely directed to be identical to other international productions. These creative choices are generated in rehearsal room processes, which can be an overwhelming challenge for new performers. Joel saw a role for teachers in supporting students’ artistic growth:

… one of our big jobs is to help the students realise that their ideas are valid, and their ideas are worthy, and they can bring those creative choices to the process, and that‘s going to make a better process for them, but also it‘s going to contribute to a better overall result at the end.

With regard to imagining the audience, Joel commented that it was, in fact, musical theatre practice to forget the audience (at one level) in order to sustain the journey of the character: “It‘s more the director‘s job to think about what they want the audience to be perceiving and to shape that as a whole”. Joel also suggested that setting aside thoughts of audience judgement effectively stalled the potential for negative self-talk. 104

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Sense of self

Interview questions about sense of self were focused on how teachers help students to form healthy habits of self-talk, and an optimistic approach to their objectives. In managing students’ negative self-talk, Shelli explained how she prompted them to reflect on their own values and motivations, audit their beliefs, and bank positive experiences. Irene described guiding students to reappraise negative experiences and set realistic goals. Joel, instead, chose to talk about the risks for performers that emerge from un-healthy or risky acting techniques that dissolve boundaries between the self and others.

Shelli was aware of working with students to identify and challenge negative self-talk. This was central to her teaching method, and her approach had been informed by her own experiences: “When I took a pause in my singing to have kids, I found it really challenging to get back on stage. So, I did a lot of my own self-investigations. I’m always really keen to pass that on”. As a first principle, she believed it was vital for her students to reflect on why they wanted to sing and what they liked about their own voices, creating a basis for positive self-talk. She described using the image of a stop sign: “If you can feel yourself circling that drain of negative self-talk, just to put a big fat red stop sign in front of your face and just don’t go there”. In lessons, Shelli guided students to a deeper self-awareness by asking them many questions about their internal processes. If students were able to store positive experiences of singing, Shelli suggested this may offset stress and other challenges. Shelli described a structured method for self-reflection called a ‘Balance Wheel’, which prompted students to audit their beliefs about their skills in technique, repertoire, and performance. Shelli also used the same tool to structure her feedback to the student, an exercise which often revealed that her view of their skills was actually more positive than their own:

I think having that self-reflective capability and that self-efficacy enables them to plan their practice better, which enables them to get much more sense of autonomy, sense of “Ok, I’m my own unit here, I can do this”. Which I think is a ‘sense of self’.

Shelli also talked about strategies for prompting positively framed self-reflection by asking, “How are you going about this?” rather than “I think this is too hard for you”.

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Irene described assisting students to reappraise difficult experiences and apply fresh perspectives to uncomfortable stories. Her method was to talk through students’ concerns, narrow the focus onto specific issues, ask them to draw the line between what can and cannot be controlled, and then advise them to “Go away and think about it. And think about, if I had that gig again, was there anything I could have done that would have made that different”. Irene also sought to instil a professional ethos and model functional relationships with employers and fellow musicians:

Put a value on your talent, and on your just being there right from the beginning … The other thing I tell them, with singers, cause I’m dealing with singers, is, don’t carry the band … if you price a gig, don’t be giving the musicians their money and then you end up with next to nothing. I won’t ever do that.

Irene offered students advice on having realistic expectations along with professional boundaries, both of which support a sense of control at times when young performers may feel they lack influence over their circumstances. She promoted a long view, casting forward to a time when student performers may be able to choose their work mates, and play with people who set a standard to aspire to: “If you’re always playing where you’re the one who’s the best person in the band then you’re not going to learn much from that. You’ll get stuck. So, keep your networks open is what I say”.

Joel felt he had already addressed the topic of positive self-talk in other areas of the interview and that optimism was related to positive self-talk. He reflected on how the terms optimistic and healthy related to one another and how acting complicated the sense of self and other:

I think optimism is a part of a healthy habit, but healthy isn‘t just optimistic. I think one of the interesting things to come with sense of self is the removal of character itself, and some people taking that too far when we think about things like method acting and that sort of thing. And you‘re talking about like there‘s always a risk of becoming too close to the other. The other isn‘t just in our case, the audience, but also the character and experiencing their … Like, if you‘re playing a character who‘s going through a specifically highly emotional trauma, like a rape scene for

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example, there‘s a lot of work around that too, in order to make sure that‘s safe and happy for that actor, that the actor is not experiencing like second- hand trauma through that.

He described an emerging understanding of the nature of the risks to performers’ well-being and sense of self that performance may present:

That‘s something that acting teachers and acting theorists and the industry generally are really working to make better, because it can be problematic. And even so much as things like intimacy coordinators … So they‘re essentially like choreographers for sex scenes or kissing scenes to make it safe and consensual, and so that it‘s not going to affect people‘s psychological selves so harshly.

This led him to talk about distinctions between empathy for character (good), as against too close an identification (not good). In overview, Joel said, “… there needs to be a separation of self. There is self in the work, and the self is affected by the work. But that relationship can‘t go so far that the self is negatively affected by the work”.

Social processes

In the category of social processes, the teachers were asked about how they supported students to connect with peers and community, and how they modelled positive relationships. Joel reflected on membership of a community of practice, saying that the theatre itself was a community and that, through training and work, performers were inherently connected to community. Irene was an advocate for independence and self-reliance as traits that support professionalism. Shelli reminded students to retain connections to community outside the conservatorium for balance and perspective and not to compare one’s own progress to that of others.

Joel felt that in his studio he encountered the whole person, not just the trainee performer, and that the conduct of teacher-student relationships was a personal choice by the teacher, yet the teacher needed to have boundaries:

… there‘s no point me ignoring the psychological stuff and trying to fix the physical stuff. Because if I keep trying to fix the physical stuff when the

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psychological stuff is the problem, I can‘t fix anything, and it doesn‘t work. I also know where my boundaries are, and that I can‘t fix everything psychologically, and that it‘s not my job or ethically my area to fix some of those things.

He also believed that individual teachers could work out their level of comfort with students when sharing personal issues: “I‘m definitely on the engage-more end of that than on the engage-less”. Joel’s attitude related to the particular vulnerabilities of the tertiary student cohort, who may have only partial self-awareness: “… particularly for a tertiary musical theatre kid, that if they make a mistake with their sound, they‘re already going to feel like they‘ve made a mistake with themselves, that they are broken”. He suggested that students needed to be able to show vulnerability so as not to be isolated with negative thoughts. He saw his openness to students’ distress as a reaction to his own early experience with negative self-talk that was not addressed in the studio context. He observed that relationships were inherent in the ensemble practices of musical theatre: “… there‘s a cast, there‘s a crew, there‘s a musical director, there‘s an orchestra or a band of some description, et cetera”. In his view, the pathway to students becoming part of the musical theatre community in a larger sense was through their student and professional relationships: “… in the same way that they would develop their own career, they would develop relationships with the community, because relationships with the community is how you get jobs in musical theatre”.

Irene shared her view with students that professionalism meant teamwork and cooperation, with no tantrums and no blame: “you get from this world what you put out. So, if you want to work with positive, engaged people, you’ve got to be positive and engaged yourself”. She also shared her perspective on membership of a professional community, suggesting that students set functional limits by taking responsibility for their own behaviour, but not for others’ behaviour, because a team worked best with appropriate boundaries:

… you have a responsibility to the people around you to be part of a team, but you don’t have a responsibility for them as individuals. That’s not your responsibility … A lot of times you’ll get gigs from musicians … because you’ll always chuck in and help out … But for me it finishes at the being part of a working team, but I don’t have to be friends with those people.

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Irene explained that her experience was that of a freelance soloist. The interdependent relationships that exist for band singers can be more complicated in that a leadership position may involve making decisions for others, particularly when making a contract with employers: “… it’s a part of life that you have to be able to depend on people in a situation, like a little family group basically”. Reflecting on recent episodes of student distress, Irene spoke about the evolution of social norms in music performance that she witnessed impacting on her students. She was shocked to learn that her students felt their behaviour was policed by peers through social media, so that they feared being blacklisted by their musical peers, and therefore felt unable to challenge others over issues of unfairness:

I go, ‘You don’t realise until you get yourself out there how many opportunities there are. This is a learning institution … it’s not going to make your career … that social thing is so important. And that effects everything we’ve been talking about before. The sense of self-worth … “I’ve got to be so good, because I really want to work with this band. If I’m not really good …” It all comes into this: they’ve got to like me. That’s what it comes down to.

Her advice to students is to develop a pathway to be more independent and self-sufficient:

I say to them, ‘What about creating a social and professional network with one other person, so that when you bring in other band members, you’re a unit. So, you don’t feel that you’re on your own’ … So, a lot of them have gone off and tried to do that.

Shelli also encouraged students to develop opportunities outside the Conservatorium, accessing “… a community that they’re already very comfortable in, like it might be their church community, it might be their old school. To put themselves in the role of the performer, but in an environment that they’re very comfortable in”. She sought to impart to students an understanding that they were part of a larger whole, in a relationship with a community of peers: “… so just really notice who you’re on stage with and notice what the others are doing”. As a member of that community, she pointed out to students the benefits in retaining a sense of autonomy, and not in comparing their performance journey to others:

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… in terms of their own singing journeys I would say, ‘Your voice is different from this person’s voice. You’re going to mature a different way, hit markers earlier and in different orders, don’t look sideways, and in terms of your own singing, look straight ahead at what you need to do’.

Shelli felt it important that teachers model ethical and professional behaviour. She saw the need for teachers to have appropriate boundaries when students report distress: “… it’s a matter of knowing what to say and how much to say, and when to refer them on to somebody else. And I have done that in the past”. She described modelling professional ethics to manage healthy relationships and protect reputations in the studio:

I’m very conscious of getting along well with my colleagues in the department and not speaking poorly about them in this room. Particularly when students are around. Because they often will try and draw you into that. I just don’t buy in to gossiping … I’m not their friend. I wouldn’t go to their 21st birthday party or anything like that but I do tend to be on their level, and I think that hopefully shows them that there’s no sense of status in professional working relationships. You always want to find a level on which you can communicate respectfully.

Cultural processes

Questions in the category of cultural processes were focused on the teacher’s role in prompting analysis of performance materials and student potential to make an original creative contribution. Shelli talked of prompting students to personalise the repertoire they choose and, when possible, to explore styles and new works. With the proviso that musical theatre practice was not about individual contributions, Joel talked of still encouraging students to explore contemporary movements and debates. Irene’s engagement with her students’ creativity related primarily to supporting them in the technical and historical facets of their extra-curricular repertoires to build a more productive relationship between their work outside and their studio learning.

In the context of classical voice training, Shelli noted that the main opportunity for supporting students’ creativity was to personalise their approaches to technique and repertoire through reflection on the meaning embedded in the music: “… maybe this piece was written

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in the fifteenth century, but everyone had the same emotions back then, so, what was the emotion that drove this piece of music? Then that’s what you take out to the audience”. In supporting students to make original contributions, Shelli wished there were more opportunities: “It’s not really as much part of this genre as I would like. I mean, I’ll always jump at the opportunity for them to be involved in new music and new work, or even write a piece for themselves if they’re feeling like it”. In her own practice, Shelli had retrained and, at the time of the interview, was researching the potential benefits of developing technique that was capable of crossing between classical and contemporary singing. This interest extended to her teaching:

I’m excited to see what the implications of that are. Because that allows students to get more creative, to step out of this genre that’s very prescriptive and quite defined over centuries, into a genre where they can play, and they can be creative, and they can find that sense of individuality because if they can bring that back into their classical …

Shelli foresaw advantages for her students in cultivating versatility and resilience, and she reflected on the potential for personal insights and innovations that may emerge from broadening singing practices and extending students’ fields of analysis: “… versatility is key these days to any artist, particularly the changing industry demands of classical singing”.

Joel stated that he was not called on to support students with their original creative works:

I work in a field where for the most part I teach students who are looking to have a career as a performer in the musical theatre industry, which means … they‘re looking to be a part of a company, as in cast of people that interpret the writings of others in historical capacity.

He was, however, supportive of students becoming aware of contemporary movements in the field of musical theatre, especially matters to do with identity, privilege, and power, which are relevant in new styles related to subcultures and communities, and which encompass new professional practices such as colour-blind casting. For Joel, discussions about materials in the studio led to greater knowledge and a deeper appreciation of the cultural weight of contemporary styles necessary to understand how to work with new kinds of musical theatre repertoire from a perspective of self-awareness: 111

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… hip hop is such a really good example because it‘s such a cultural music. It‘s was born out of a culture, and it‘s more than just music. There‘s dance, there‘s a whole bunch of other stuff within that that‘s not just … There‘s a look, a clothing, et cetera. And I‘m not from that world. I am absolutely a white middle class boy.

Joel commented that these matters were less crucial in contemporary singing, which he described as ‘more personal’ in its expression of the performer’s self.

Irene felt that cultural analysis and creation was the process she was least engaged with in the studio. She reflected on supporting students’ extra-curricular practices as being a foundation to understanding their individual vocal challenges. Based on the materials they share, she prompted students’ analyses:

… first of all, I’ll go listen, even if I don’t like the music. Secondly, I listen to the language in the music, the artist that they’re having to emulate or that they’re trying to write … And so I go, ‘Well, what is it that they’re doing?’

At times, Irene had encountered difficulties dealing with contemporary approaches that she found alien or unattractive, working out how to take them on their own terms. However, through this dialogue, she had sometimes been able to introduce students to the musical roots of contemporary styles. This discussion led Irene to consider the way her students manage affiliations with style: “So, I guess I try and understand why they’re interested in that, and generally it’s to do with social, cultural reasons: their friends are into it or it’s a particular group they like to hang out with”. She felt that young people were much more involved now in scenes, with prescribed dress codes, manners, and musical preferences, which present inherent risks for singers who don’t look or behave the part. Irene gave an example of a student who realised they were aging out of the role of the pop singer and thus had reduced opportunities to work. Her reflections on this situation were similar to her advice about being socially independent: “Don’t be a dinosaur. The dinosaurs got wiped out. You’ve got to keep moving. Or you say, ‘That was really good while it lasted. And I really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s time to do something else’”.

Turning to the subject of supporting students to make original contributions, Irene was again very pragmatic, relating a work ethic to creativity: 112

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I say to them, ‘There’s hundreds of years of music out there. Go back and do your homework’. I’m sorry, there’s very little new that you can come up with. Thought, yes, but not music … if you’re interested in jazz, if you’re interested in pop … go back and listen to the roots of it. Why did they write that stuff? Then you do have to come up with a point of difference. But you can do that as a ‘covers’ singer, because you can just be yourself.

She also made the point that, once we have absorbed such important and formative influences, the mature phase of training was to contact an authentic and individual sound, suggesting to her students, “Now, let‘s find your voice”.

SUMMARY OF THE INTERVIEW RESULTS

These interviews were designed as a counterpart to the singers’ self-reflections gathered through the recital and the survey, and as a tool for comparing teaching practices. While there were differences based on the demands of style, there was also much common ground that can be related to the management of underlying processes. Common ground included the importance of supporting students’ sense of agency, methods for developing awareness of bodily processes and managing states of arousal, support for the development of mental skills and clear professional boundaries, and support for a deeper engagement with repertoire and stylistic debates. Contrasts were found in expectations about the functional nature of emotional expression in performance, about approaches to professional behaviour and relationships with others, and about the nature of communities of practice and other relevant social settings.

The interviews also exposed a strong relationship between self-reflection and positive insight, in that these teachers have clearly been extremely reflexive in their studio practices. There is evidence that they gauge, and respond proportionately to, students’ psychological strengths and weaknesses, and that they bring their own experience, beliefs, and understandings to this task. The three teachers described strategies that supported students in feeling safe enough to be expressive or vulnerable. These strategies included developing habits of positivity and optimism, managing states of arousal, limiting negative self-talk, and building on their individual strengths. The teachers also acknowledged that working with student vulnerability required ethical decisions about professional boundaries, though these were set differently by each teacher relative to each student, again according to personal experience. 113

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In light of the prevalence of academic studies focused on negative function in performance, and the statistics on performance anxiety in music, the psychological well-being of performers is a subject that must be of interest to all ethical teaching institutions. This was a small and restricted study of a sample of three teachers working at the same university. In many cases, they were dealing with students who were from the same kinds of comfortable middle-class backgrounds. I propose that a useful extension to this research would be to collect responses from a much larger and more diverse teaching population, possibly through a survey method, and to include more evaluation of the method. This might potentially show that a focus on the underlying processes of performance could evoke useful and healthy insights by singing teachers, benefiting both themselves and their students.

At this point all three research methods have been described and analysed in three separate chapters. In my conclusion (Chapter 7) I consider how all three sets of results compare, and whether shared common insights and themes are strengthened through this comparison.

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CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION

In this study, three distinct research methods were developed to investigate singers’ experiences of performance. The central aspect of all three methods was the use of self- reflection as a data source, guided by the research framework, to elicit descriptions of singers’ experiences of performance. Chapter 4 detailed an autoethnographic creative process with a performance output. Chapter 5 described the coding and numerical analysis of 33 singers’ self-reflections, gathered through an online survey. Chapter 6 compared three case study interviews with singing teachers from the Queensland Conservatorium who teach diverse styles. In this concluding chapter, I consider how these three methods intersect, comparing themes that emerged from the collected data and contemplate the usefulness of the framework as a tool for future research and teaching.

SELF-REFLECTION

The results of this study present three ways of using self-reflection to enrich an understanding of singers’ experiences of performance. The autoethnographic method functioned as an audit of my practice by generating rich, detailed descriptions and analysis of my experience of performance, and reflections on the formative experiences of listening and singing in my youth and childhood. In collaboration with a colleague, I composed a song for the recital (‘This Gift’), which described how singing is my gateway to immersion in the embodied present, even while acting as a vehicle for fantasy narratives. It was integral to my artistic sense of self that my songs and stories should evoke compassionate understanding from the audience. Through the recital performance and resultant documentation, I observed that my performance method relied on eliciting reciprocal sharing of thoughts and feelings with the audience through a display of vulnerability and openness. A second song was composed to encapsulate my gratitude for the audience’s attention (‘Sing my Song for You’). Sharing self- reflections in the recital performance proved to be impactful for the audience and made the communication more intimate, evocative, and arguably more persuasive. These insights have had useful impacts as I arrive at turning points in my performing life, and healthy impacts as they affirm my artistic autonomy and mastery and remind me of my sense of purpose as a performer.

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The survey method evoked self-reflections from 33 singers. The survey questions were designed to draw out detailed descriptions and elicit new insights by focusing on underlying processes. In the analysis of the data, I identified themes common among many of the participants, as well as distinctive, individual experiences. The strongest trends in the survey data were found to be in the areas of pleasurable heightened states, bodily discomfort, and the complex function of emotion in performance. Trends also indicated that participants had strong values and a sense of serving an audience that gave meaning to the social role of the performer and enriched their relationship to repertoire. For many, their perspectives on their practices had evolved and were continuing to evolve over time. In an overview of the findings, a distinction could be made between those processes over which the participants had conscious control (values, purpose, perspectives) aligning with autonomy and purpose, and those over which they did not have direct control (cognitive, bodily, and some emotional processes) which needed to be mastered and managed.

In a third application of the research framework, the interview method allowed me to gather and compare reflections from three experienced singing teachers. The use of the framework to generate questions elicited responses that showed that the teachers shared similar concerns to one another, but that these concerns manifested in three distinct practices, shaped by stylistic traditions and individual experience. The teachers described strategies to support students in managing embedded processes like memory and focus, arousal and fear. Each talked about individual cases, where they had been able to direct students away from less positive habits and behaviours, to build better self-knowledge, and to challenge negative self- narratives. The goals of coaching students to manage challenges and build on their strengths were common to the three teachers. These findings complement the themes identified in the survey data in that the three teachers were actively engaged in assisting students to manage those processes that lie beneath the level of awareness.

The key findings across the triangulated methods support a view that self-reflection has merit as a data source for research into singers’ experiences because it can produce rich descriptions of phenomena that are not currently well understood from a scientific perspective. Also, by bringing embedded knowledge of singers to the surface, the three- pronged research enquiry evoked insights that can potentially support performers’ sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose—the qualities of psychological well-being.

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FRAMEWORK

The research framework was designed as a means to investigate processes that underlie the experience of performance. My reading across a wide range of field-specific and related literature (as presented in Chapter 2) assisted in the development of counter arguments to established concepts related to performance; in particular, opaque invocations of ‘optimal performance’, high art-related evocations of ‘aesthetic emotions’, and the construct of the nine facet model of flow. This led me to question whether a focus on optimal performance, and the categories of performance that have been studied using flow theory, are focused on culturally defined notions of excellence and, as a consequence, overlook the experience of singers who perform in many and diverse contexts. This is not meant to be overly critical of current musicological and pedagogical priorities, but my current research provides evidence that performers lack common terms to talk about the aspects of performance that are otherwise wordless and embodied. A concept that emerged as central to this study was that, as people, we interact with deeply embedded processes operating below the level of awareness by intuitively constructing narratives, metaphors, and images to both explain and influence our perceptions, responses, and actions. Clearly, concepts like ‘holism’ and ‘the zone’ as used in the pedagogical literature by Chapman (2016) and Smith (2007) are an attempt to encapsulate these embedded processes with accessible, evocative imagery. On the basis of the literature reviewed, it could be argued that these concepts, including the nine facet model of flow, should be reappraised in light of the revolutionary shifts in understanding that are emerging from recent behavioural and brain science.

The literature review also revealed that the singing performer’s experiences are not well represented in the design of musicological studies on the subjects of performance, emotion, and the voice. Therefore, the research framework was designed with a view to bridging the gap between what academic literature can tell us about performance as a phenomenon, and singers’ experiences of performance. The terms developed for the framework offer a common ground between terms used in the academic literature, my own experience of diverse performance practices, and the individual experiences of singer participants. By weaving together insights from musicology, music psychology, and behavioural and brain science sources, my intention was to side-step existing debates and common concepts, bringing a wider lens to the investigation of singers’ own experiences of performance. Broadly, the framework attempted to minimise differences that arose from cultural constructs and 117

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maximise similarities that exist in common underlying capacities, reflecting the distinction between music and musicality identified by Honing et al. (2015).

This doctoral study has provided me the opportunity to use scientific knowledge to enrich an exploration of human experience. My hope is that academics will increasingly access insights from human experience to potentially challenge and illuminate science. The most useful contribution this research can make lies in further applications of the research framework developed here. The framework demonstrated its effectiveness in the rich, detailed self- reflections evoked by the three research methods, particularly in relation to the management of inner states. The survey of the singers produced 33 self-reports on phenomena that are central to performance, and that relate to processes that occur beneath the level of awareness. In the interviews, the three singing teachers specifically addressed the challenges of building connections between internal states and external expression, and the use of the framework in the recital led me to re-examine buried incidents and reappraise formative experiences. I would not make the claim that this study led participants to a different level or kind of self- reflection; but rather, that the methods and framework may have contributed as a focus or a trigger for the participants’ own reflexive processes. Perhaps the study methods acted as a useful prompt, and ‘new’ insights may have been embedded knowledge viewed in a new light. Nearly all the singers who participated in the study exhibited a strong sense of self and a habit of self-reflection that indicated they were already actively involved in the processes that McAdams (2013) described as self-authoring. I do not wish to underrate the work I have done on identifying, and hopefully demystifying, the categories of underlying processes, but any analytical tool or system that guides performers into positive self-reflection on embedded processes might be just as effective in producing insights. This brings to mind people I know who are committed sceptics, but who use arcane systems such as astrology, the I Ching, or the tarot to focus self-reflections on their lives. It seems likely that performers’ own preparedness to be reflective may be the most relevant factor in the production of useful and healthy reflexive insights.

COMPLEXITY

In response to a perceived potential for negative self-reflection, in the design phase I decided to focus on the positive function of the underlying processes. However, the combined results gleaned from the data suggest that well-being is far more complicated and multidimensional

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than is implied by the pursuit of positivity. This has led me to question whether I found evidence of enhanced well-being because it was a natural by-product of self-reflection, or because that outcome was implicit in the design of the framework. On reflection, I wonder if I, as the researcher, succumbed to a tendency to want things to be safe, to be all about good feelings, positive and optimistic, reflecting current popular psychological approaches. If so, then this might have implications for my interpretation of the results. However, it could be that any inherent positive bias in the survey was not able to suppress participants’ reflections on the difficulties they experience as singing performers. Some insights that emerged in the survey data were highly nuanced, philosophical and, at times, seemingly ambivalent. In their evaluations of the survey instrument, participants indicated that increasing self-knowledge through self-reflection may have moderated how they, as performers, rate their skills and expertise. Further, the results of the survey suggested that many singers may feel the need to weigh up the benefits that performance offers in terms of their investment of time, energy, and resources. The interviews provide evidence that teachers are aware of these kinds of calculations in the lives of their students.

In this study, self-reflection also facilitated a more critical understanding of my own recital performance. When developing the work, I felt I knew what my story was and how to present it in a satisfying way for the audience. However, I now feel that my choice to balance light and shade, to make things tidy and pleasant, had the effect of diminishing the complexity of my own experience. What I did not show to the audience was that I have also had dark, messy days, and have come close to giving it all up. I feel that, as a result of this research, I am more willing to revisit episodes from my professional life that were painful or shameful because I have developed a better understanding of my strengths. Potentially, for myself and for the other study participants, an increased acceptance of negative experiences may be made possible through a secure sense of psychological well-being.

These findings paint a complex picture of how singers experience and understand performance. Consideration of this complexity leads me to challenge assumptions I made based on my own performance experience. When I initiated this study, I was prey to a bias that Kahneman (2011) called, “What You See Is All There Is” (p. 85). I know that I prefer to perform instinctually because this is how I attain those layered states of deep effortless concentration described by Marty-Dugas and Smilek (2018), and this habitual pleasure on

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stage may be a product of what Wood Brooks (2013) described as a spiral of optimism. Based on my own very pleasant experiences, I was convinced that performance anxiety was basically a category error. Surely, I felt, performance was not about the performer themselves, but about the shared pleasure of connection; so, if I could pose the right questions to other performers, I could elicit confirming answers. This was a somewhat naïve, blinkered attitude. There is nothing simple about singing performance; even though it feels magnificently easy when it is going well, individuals may be experiencing very different internal events. What the results have taught me is that singing performance is a fluid negotiation by a situated individual balancing perception, expectation, motivation, memory, imagination, and empathy among many other processes.

OUTCOMES

The results of this study provided rich, detailed, and challenging concepts which may contribute new ideas and directions to the discourse on singing teaching and performance. For myself, as the researcher, I am now embarking on a project to write a long-form memoir exploring the threads that connect my role as a family carer and my life as a performer. It is my goal to explore difficult themes, irresolvable griefs, and my own vulnerabilities and regrets. This ongoing project will provide me with a challenging creative enterprise as I continue to share the pleasure of singing and songs as an older person.

With regard to research, there is potential to refine ‘The Performer’s Toolkit’ survey as either a website or a phone application in order to continue offering the survey to singers and develop a large enough sample to be of statistical relevance. As a contribution to practice, I suggest there are benefits for singers when they feel supported in their processes of self- reflection by their community, peers, teachers, and audiences. When reflecting on the results of this study, I believe the participants’ responses indicate that asking performers to be iron clad or unbreakable, is not realistic. In fact, there is evidence that when we feel strong, we can accept our failings, and when we feel powerful, we can show our vulnerability. This is another paradoxical aspect of singers experiences, akin to the tension identified by Cochrane et al. (2013) between the experience and expression of emotion.

With regard to teaching, the use of guided self-reflection on teachers’ personal pedagogical approaches could provide them opportunities to compare and learn from one another. If

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teachers chose to engage with their students using a framework such as ‘The Performer’s Toolkit‘, it could potentially give them detailed insights into their students’ mode of self- assessment and self-evaluations, and the impact of these elements on the students’ singing performances. Finally, I suggest that singing teachers, as a prime resource for students’ development of goals and measurements of psychological well-being, might begin to view these underlying processes as an important consideration when developing curriculum in teaching institutions. Potential partnerships between administrators, educators, and psychologists in developing tools to address the student performer’s emotional and psychological well-being could be effected not as a means to achieve optimal performance, but as a means to support performer resilience through a strong sense of autonomy, mastery, and sense of purpose.

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APPENDIX 1: THE PERFORMER’S TOOLKIT SURVEY QUESTIONS

Preliminaries

1. Your age? 2. Your gender? 3. How many years of public performance experience have you had? 4. How often do you sing solo (with accompaniment)? 5. Describe the singing style that you mainly perform, e.g. Classical, Jazz, Pop, or other. 6. To what degree are you self-taught as a performer? 7. Have you had any singing or music training? (Check boxes that apply) a. Self-taught b. Received mentoring c. Private lessons d. Tertiary training e. Other (please specify) 8. If you accompany yourself, what instrument do you use? 9. Do you consider yourself to be a confident performer? 10. How positive do you feel about your expertise and knowledge of performance?

The introduction to the framework (See Figure 10 below)

The Survey

Experiences

11. In what ways does your performance state feel different from everyday awareness? 12. In what ways does your body respond to performance? 13. How do you experience your own emotional state while performing? 14. How aware are you of your thoughts in performance? 15. How do you experience the role of the performer on stage? 16. In what ways does performance connect you to others? 17. To what degree are you satisfied with the performance opportunities you have?

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Beliefs

18. What practices have a positive influence on your perceptions in performance? 19. In what ways is your performance shaped by bodily awareness? 20. What role do your emotions play in your performance? 21. How important is it for performers to draw on imagination? 22. Why do you choose to be a performer? 23. In what ways does performance define who you are to others? 24. In what ways do you engage with tradition and/or experimentation in performance?

Understandings

25. How do you interpret the effects of performance on your perceptions? 26. In what ways is bodily awareness important for effective performance? 27. What role does the desire to share emotion play in your performance? 28. How has your vision of performance evolved through experience? 29. How would you describe the role of a performer in the performance? 30. How does your performance practice shape your social world? 31. What performance milestones have you reached and what is your direction from here?

Evaluation

32. How well did the 21 questions assist you to focus your reflections on performance? 33. Did you enjoy the time you spent reflecting on your experiences, beliefs, and understandings? 34. How relevant or useful did you find it to consider seven different categories of underlying processes? 35. How positive do you feel about your expertise and knowledge of performance? 36. Did you encounter personal insights about your own performance practice through these activities? 37. Would you recommend this process of guided self-reflection to other performers?

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Figure 10: Graphic table of seven processes for survey participants

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APPENDIX 2: PARTICIPANT DATA

Participants 33 100%

1. AGE 18–25 5 15% 26–35 3 9% 36–45 3 9% 46–55 11 33% 56+ 10 30% None 1 3%

33 100% 2. GENDER Female 22 67% Male 9 27% Other 1 3% None 1 3%

33 100% 3. YEARS OF PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 2–5 4 12% 6–10 2 6% 11–15 2 6% 16–20 1 3% 21–25 3 9% 26+ 21 64%

33 100% 4. HOW OFTEN DO YOU SING SOLO? Rarely 11 33% Often 19 58% Always 3 9%

33 100% 5. DESCRIBE YOUR SINGING STYLE Classical and Musical theatre 10 30% Roots and folk 10 30% Jazz 6 18% Alternative 4 12% Pop and rock 3 9%

33 100% 6. TO WHAT DEGREE ARE YOU SELF-TAUGHT? 125

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Not at all 2 6% Small degree 7 21% 50/50 9 27% Mostly 9 27% Entirely 6 18%

33 100% 7. WHAT TRAINING DID YOU RECEIVE?

SINGLE RESPONSE Self-taught 4 12% Received mentoring 0 0% Private lessons 4 12% Tertiary training 3 9% Other 1 3%

MULTIPLE RESPONSE 36% Self-taught/Received mentoring 1 3% Self-taught/other 1 3% Private lessons/Tertiary training 6 18% Tertiary training/other 1 3% Self-taught/Private lessons/Tertiary training 1 3% Self-taught/Private lessons/other 3 9% Self-taught/received mentoring/other 1 3% Received mentoring/Private lessons/Tertiary training 1 3% Private lessons/Tertiary training/other 2 6% Self-taught/Private lessons/Tertiary training/other 2 6% Self-taught/Received mentoring/Private lessons/Tertiary training 1 3% Self-taught/Received mentoring/Private lessons/Tertiary training/other 1 3%

64% 100% 8. DO YOU ACCOMPANY YOURSELF—INSTRUMENT? Don‘t accompany myself 8 24% African drum 1 3% Cello 1 3% Guitar 4 12% Piano 9 27% Multi-instrumentalist 10 30%

33 100% 9. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE A CONFIDENT PERFORMER? Moderately 9 27% 126

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Confident 16 48% Very confident 8 24%

33 100% 10. HOW POSITIVE DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE OF PERFORMANCE? Not at all 1 3% A little 1 3% Somewhat 6 18% Quite positive 15 45% Very positive 10 30%

33 100% 11. COMMENTS • Interesting to note my own resistance to answering boldly, but yes I consider performance one of my strengths and I am skilled at guiding others as actors

• always room to improve • Obviously there is still a lot to learn through experience but at present I feel positive about my knowledge through formal and informal studies/practice. • When I’m comfortable I have no real issues, otherwise anxiety and lack of trust of self can ensue • I‘m a bit confused by the question. I find it hard to knuckle down what a ‘good‘ performance is. • A full lifetime of experience and learning—still learning and loving it all.

• Always learning. • Feeling ‘very positive‘ would be self defeating • As I‘ve done less performance my confidence has lessened over time

• There lies the rub, extreme confidence—no idea • Not in terms of setting up sound, but actual performance, yes • I find performance difficult but have had extensive touring experience and skills. • I am always searching for more knowledge and open to learning to how I can improve • my drama degree and experience gives me positivity, however I‘ve always existed on the fringes and never really felt accepted by my musical peers

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APPENDIX 3: SINGING TEACHER BIOGRAPHIES

Irene Bartlett

Irene Bartlett is a multifaceted singer, performer, and educator who has dedicated her career to performance and teaching. Spanning more than four decades, Irene’s performance career has encompassed all contemporary styles (jazz combo to pop/rock band, big band swing to corporate duo). Across this lifetime of singing, she has been privileged to work alongside top professional musicians everywhere, from clubs to jazz festivals, civic halls to concert stages, and on television. In addition to her performance career, Irene’s love of singing has taken her on a fascinating journey through academia, where her research into contemporary singing voice culminated in the conferral of her Doctorate in 2011. She is currently Associate Professor, Coordinator of Jazz/Contemporary Voice, Head of Pedagogy and Principal supervisor for students enrolled in PhD, DMA, and Master of Music (research) at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. Irene has mentored the singing talents of some of the best-known names in the modern Australian music industry. Many of these gifted musicians have been recipients of major industry awards, including multiple Arias, Bell Awards (Best Jazz Albums), Generation in Jazz scholarships (James Morrison awards), Apra Awards, winner of ‘X-Factor’, and an Australian representative at Eurovision 2016. As an accomplished performer, teacher, and scholar, Irene has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters, and presented workshops, masterclasses, and conference papers both nationally and internationally. Irene remains as passionate about music, singing, and performance now as she was back at the beginning of what she describes as “an amazing journey”.

Shelli Hulcombe

Shelli Hulcombe completed undergraduate performance studies at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University furthering her studies in the UK at the Royal Northern College of Music. Her other qualifications include a Graduate Diploma in Music (Sydney University) and a Master of Music Studies majoring in Vocal Pedagogy (Griffith University).

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Shelli has appeared in a wide range of operatic roles with leading Australian companies, as well as international engagements in the UK, Europe, and South East Asia. On the concert stage, she has performed with the Queensland, Melbourne, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Camerata of St John’s, the Queensland Pops Orchestra, the ACO Voices, and Sydney Philharmonia. As a chamber musician, Shelli’s collaborations have included Cantillations, Camerata of St John’s, and Musica Viva. She was an inaugural member of the corporate ‘popopera’ group, The Seven Sopranos.

In Sydney, Shelli sang for several years with the highly acclaimed chamber choir, Cantillations, with whom she recorded a number of CDs for ABC Classics, including Carmina Burana, The Messiah (also released on DVD), Voice of the Angel, and Sacred Music of the Renaissance. Other recordings include Semele (ABC Classics), where she performs the role of Cupid with Pinchgut Opera.

Shelli is a passionate advocate of community engagement and music education. She regularly adjudicates at many of the major eisteddfods around South East Queensland, and is a Singing, Singing for Leisure, and Musical Theatre examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB). Shelli is also a performer in the Musica Viva in Schools music education program. Shelli is currently National President of the Australian Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS). She has delivered presentations for ANATS and MTAQ and is regularly invited to give public masterclasses across Brisbane and South East Queensland.

Shelli’s research interests include the use of cross-genre vocal training to improve performance outcomes for classical singers, and she is currently completing doctoral studies in this area.

Many of Shelli’s former students are currently singing and studying across Australia and overseas with organisations such as Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, The Seven Sopranos, Glyndebourne Opera, Pacific Opera, Pinchgut Opera, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Royal Northern College of Music. She also has former students working in such diverse fields as music therapy, stage directing, speech pathology, and music education. She is dedicated to helping her students discover their individual strengths, and encouraging them to find their unique place within the arts industry.

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Joel Curtis

Joel is a voice teacher and musical director with a background teaching both musical theatre and contemporary commercial music. He currently teaches singing at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, and at JMC Academy. In addition to his teaching, Joel is an AMEB examiner and regularly acts as a musical director for various independent theatre companies and educational institutions.

As an academic, Joel has presented his work on mental health in tertiary music education at conferences and workshops nationally, and is published in Studies in Musical Theatre.

Joel holds an MMus. St. (Pedagogy) from Griffith University, a BMus. (Mus. Ed.) from Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a Dip. Perf. Arts from ED5 International, and he is a graduate of NIDA Musical Theatre.

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